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Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Scientists for Work in Click Chemistry Nobel Prize in Chemistry Is Awarded to 3 Scientists for Work ‘Snapping Molecules Together’
(32 minutes later)
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless on Wednesday for the development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry.The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless on Wednesday for the development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry.
Dr. Bertozzi is the eighth woman to be awarded the prize, and Dr. Sharpless is the fifth scientist to be honored with two Nobels, the committee noted.Dr. Bertozzi is the eighth woman to be awarded the prize, and Dr. Sharpless is the fifth scientist to be honored with two Nobels, the committee noted.
Johan Aqvist, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said that this year’s prize dealt with “not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple.”Johan Aqvist, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said that this year’s prize dealt with “not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple.”
“Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route,” he said. “Click chemistry is almost like it sounds,” he said. “It’s all about snapping molecules together. Imagine that you could attach small chemical buckles to different types of building blocks. Then you could link these buckles together and produce molecules of greater complexity and variation.”
Before the award was announced on Wednesday, the committee hinted that it could again be given to a woman, with a pair of Twitter posts highlighting Marie Curie and the 2020 winners, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna. “The problem was to find good chemical buckles,” Dr. Aqvist added. “They have to react with each other, easily and specifically. Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless independently found the first perfect candidates that will easily snap together, and importantly they won’t snap with anything else.”
The committee also telegraphed how rare it is for scientists to win two Nobels, noting that Curie was one of the few people to have done so. Dr. Sharpless, the committee noted afterward, becomes the fifth member of that club. Dr. Bertozzi, a chemist and professor at Stanford, emphasized the importance of click therapy in medicine and “drug delivery,” which involves “doing chemistry inside living patients to make sure drugs go to the right place and not to the wrong place.”
“The field of click chemistry is still in its early phases,” she said, adding that there were “many new reactions to be discovered and invented,” as well as new applications to be found in industries like biotech, and in treating and diagnosing illnesses.
“These are areas that will be very strongly impacted by click chemistry, and they already have been,” said Dr. Bertozzi, who earned her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1993.
Dr. Aqvist noted that click chemistry “can now be used for building drug molecules, polymers, new materials and many other things.”
Before the award was announced on Wednesday, the committee hinted that the prize could again be given to a woman, with a pair of Twitter posts highlighting Marie Curie and the 2020 winners, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna.
“I’m absolutely stunned. I’m sitting here and can hardly breathe,” Dr. Bertozzi said on a call with the committee. “I’m still not entirely positive that it’s real, but it’s getting realer by the minute.”
While she said that she had not yet had time to consider how to use the award money, Dr. Bertozzi noted that “to the extent that the prize casts a light on chemical biology, that’s a wonderful thing.”
The committee also telegraphed how rare it is for scientists to win two Nobels, noting that Curie was one of the few to have done so. Dr. Sharpless, the committee noted afterward, becomes the fifth member of that club.
It is the third Nobel Prize given in the sciences this week. The awards are among the highest honors in science, recognizing groundbreaking contributions in their field.It is the third Nobel Prize given in the sciences this week. The awards are among the highest honors in science, recognizing groundbreaking contributions in their field.
The prize was awarded to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for their development of a tool that spurred research into new drugs and reduced chemistry’s effect on the environment.The prize was awarded to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for their development of a tool that spurred research into new drugs and reduced chemistry’s effect on the environment.
The Physiology or Medicine prize was awarded on Monday to Svante Pääbo, a Swedish scientist who peered back into human history by retrieving genetic material from 40,000-year-old bones, producing a complete Neanderthal genome and initiating the field of ancient DNA studies.The Physiology or Medicine prize was awarded on Monday to Svante Pääbo, a Swedish scientist who peered back into human history by retrieving genetic material from 40,000-year-old bones, producing a complete Neanderthal genome and initiating the field of ancient DNA studies.
The physics prize went to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger on Tuesday for their experiments that pioneered developments in the field of quantum mechanics.The physics prize went to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger on Tuesday for their experiments that pioneered developments in the field of quantum mechanics.
The Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded on Thursday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Last year, Abdulrazak Gurnah won for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”The Nobel Prize in Literature will be awarded on Thursday by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Last year, Abdulrazak Gurnah won for “his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents.”
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. Last year, Maria Ressa and Dmitri A. Muratov, both journalists, won for their efforts to protect press freedoms.The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded on Friday by the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. Last year, Maria Ressa and Dmitri A. Muratov, both journalists, won for their efforts to protect press freedoms.
Next week, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be awarded on Monday by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Last year, the prize went to David Card, Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens.Next week, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be awarded on Monday by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm. Last year, the prize went to David Card, Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens.
All of the prize announcements will also be streamed live by the Nobel Prize institution. Prize winners will receive their awards at a ceremony in Stockholm in December.All of the prize announcements will also be streamed live by the Nobel Prize institution. Prize winners will receive their awards at a ceremony in Stockholm in December.