根据诺贝尔奖官方网站：

09年的获奖者是因为“having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.”是纯粹的晶体结构研究。长期专著地研究正说明这些晶体结构研究极有挑战性。

06年Kornberg尽管用各种方法研究RNA聚合酶，但获奖列出的Original articles看起来也全是结构研究，而不是“只是其中一小部分”：
Cramer, P., Bushnell, D.A. and Kornberg, R.D. (2001) Structural basis of transcription: RNA polymerase II at 2.8 ångstrom resolution. Science 292, 1863-1876.

Gnatt, A.L., Cramer, P., Fu, J., Bushnell, D.A. and Kornberg, R.D. (2001) Structural basis of transcription: An RNA polymerase II elongation complex at 3.3 Å resolution. Science 292, 1876-1882.

Bushnell, D.A., Westover, K.D., Davis, R.E. and Kornberg, R.D. (2004) Structural basis of transcription: An RNA polymerase II – TFIIB cocrystal at 4.5 angstroms. Science 303, 983-988.

03年MacKinnon获奖是因为"for structural and mechanistic studies of ion channels"。引用的Original articles看起来2/3是结构研究：
"The structure of the potassium channel: Molecular basis of K+ conduction and selectivity". D.A. Doyle, J. Morais Cabral, R.A. Pfuetzner, A. Quo, J.M. Gulbis, S.L. Cohen, B.T. Chait and R. MacKinnon. Science 280 (1998) 69-77.
"Energetic optimization of ion conduction rate by the K+ selectivity filter". J.H. Morais-Cabral, Y. Zhou and R. MacKinnon. Nature 414 (2001) 37-47.
"Crystal structure and mechanism of a calcium-gated potassium channel", Jiang, Y., Lee, A., Chen, J., Cadene, M., Chait, B.T., and MacKinnon, R. (2002). Nature 417, 515-522.