Abstract: X-ray crystallography is the most powerful method to obtain the structure of biomolecular crystals. The emergence of serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) using the X-ray free electron laser has provided a brand new tool for the study of structural biology. In this paper, we introduce the application and achievements of SFX in the field of structural biology. These show that the method is indispensable for the study of biological macromolecular dynamics and static structure in the natural state on the sub-nanometer scale and the femtosecond time scale.