admin On Wednesday Scientists Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering reactions that allow molecules to snap together in order to create brand new compounds. These have the potential to offer insight into the biology of cells.
This field of chemistry is called click chemistry. Click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry can be leveraged to improve the targeting mechanism of cancer pharmaceuticals that are now under testing in clinical trials. In addition to this, the new reactions can help in a host of health, agricultural and industrial applications.
The award-giving body praised the new discovery, claiming that it presents endless opportunities and applications. “By combining simple chemical building blocks, it is possible to create an almost infinite variety of molecules,” they said in a statement. They added further that “the simple answers are the always best”.
Interestingly, the Danish winner Medal depicted the click chemistry in a surprising way. It is very similar to building complex structures and linking them as if they were pieces of Lego, the plastic construction toy.
The technology is used all over the world to gain further knowledge about cells and monitor biological processes. It is also easy to assemble in the lab stable molecules without the need of creating undesirable by-products that had hamper the more primitive methods.
The elite band of scientists, who already have two Noble prizes to their name, was joined by Sharpless. The other members of the team are John Bardeen who already won the Physics prize twice, Marie Curie, who won Physics and Chemistry, Linus Pauling who won Chemistry and Peace and Frederick Sanger who won the Chemistry prize twice.
Bertozzi was thrilled to be a part of this. “I’m absolutely fascinated to find myself sitting here among the greats. I can hardly breathe,” she said from California after the academy reached her by telephone with the news she had won.
She added that as part of her work, she and her team managed to visualize and understand cell surface structures known as glycans, leading to a new idea in cancer immune therapy.
The academy said the laureates’ discoveries had been used far beyond oncology, enabling products such as antimicrobials, herbicides, diagnostic tests, corrosion retardants and brightening agents.
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