Conceptual illustration of the determination of the structure of myoglobin by the British biochemist John Kendrew in 1957 using X-ray diffraction techniques. This was the first atomic structure of a protein to be determined. Myoglobin is a protein found in muscle tissue, where it binds to and stores oxygen to be used during strenuous exercise. The structure of the globin protein (red) protects the haem (iron) group (blue and grey) from being oxidised and destroyed by the oxygen it carries. Kendrew shared the 1962 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with his colleague Max Perutz for their work on the structures of globular proteins.