Discovery of the three-dimensional structure of a protein complex found in certain photosynthetic bacteria, called the photosynthetic reaction center. This was the first elucidation of the 3D crystal structure of any membrane protein complex. The authors used X-ray crystallography to determine the exact arrangement of the 10,000 atoms in this protein complex. Photosynthesis has been called "the most important chemical reaction in the biosphere."

For the first time understanding of processes in bacterial cells elucidated a complex chemical reaction that had hitherto only been studied in plant cells.

In 1988 Deisenhofer, Huber and Michel shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre."

(Thanks to Juan Weiss for this entry and its interpretation).