American scientists Barry Sharpless of the Scripps Research Institute and Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University along with Danish scientist Morten Meldal of University of Copenhagen have bagged the 2022 Nobel prize in chemistry for developing a pathbreaking method of ‘snapping molecules together’ for targeted medication.
The three scientists were cited for their contributions to ‘click chemistry’ and bioorthogonal reactions.
“This year’s prize in Chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple. Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route,” says Johan Åqvist, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, while announcing the winners at the event.
This is the second Nobel prize for Professor Barry Sharpless in the field of chemistry, making him only the fifth such person to have two Nobel prizes in their name. Professor Sharpless won his first Nobel in chemistry back in 2001 when he shared the award with William Nowles and Ryoji Noyori for the development of catalytic asymmetric synthesis.
In fact, it was Professor Sharpless who initiated the theory of ‘click chemistry’ which refers to the concept of much more reliable and simpler chemistry that allows molecular reactions to occur swiftly and without the interference of any unwanted by-products.
Professor Meldal joined the wagon of click chemistry soon after and, both, Barry and Morten presented (independently) the base concept of click chemistry, popularly known as ‘the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition’.
Carolyn Bertozzi, later in 2003, took the concept of click chemistry to a whole new level by proposing that click chemistry can be used to simplify biological system studies. In her paper on ‘bioorthogonal chemistry’ Bertozzi showed how click chemistry could be used to observe critical cellular processes without interfering with them.
Today, Bertozzi’s study is used by healthcare professionals worldwide to explore cells and track biological processes.
While click chemistry has aided in making cancer drugs, mapping DNA, and creating materials tailored to a specific purpose, bioorthogonal reaction responses have helped researchers improve targeted cancer pharmaceuticals.
These findings have “led to a revolution in how chemists think about linking molecules together and how to do it in living cells,” Johan Åqvist said.
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