On the afternoon of October 6, Beijing time, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced in Stockholm that it would award the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to German scientist Benjamin List and British-born scientist David W.C. MacMillan for their contributions to the development of asymmetric organic catalysis. They will share a bonus of 10 million Swedish kroner (approximately RMB 7.35 million).
Experts pointed out that this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is a "real chemistry prize" and was awarded to two pure chemists. And the research of these two chemists - asymmetric organic catalysis, helps to synthesize new drugs more simply, more efficiently, greener and more environmentally friendly. Why is
awarded to them?
According to the Nobel Prize website, Lister and McMillan have developed a new and clever molecular construction tool - organic catalysis, whose uses include researching new drugs and helping make chemistry more environmentally friendly.
It explains that many research fields and industries rely on the ability of chemists to construct molecules that can form elastic, durable materials that store energy in batteries or inhibit disease progression. And this work requires catalysts—that is, substances that control and accelerate chemical reactions, but they will not become part of the final product. It can be said that catalysts are the basic tool for chemists.
Many molecules exist in two variants, one of which is a mirror image of the other, which will have completely different effects on the body. For example, one version of the limonene molecule has a lemon flavor, while its mirrored variant has an orange flavor. Source Nobel Prize Official Twitter
For a long time, researchers believe that only two catalysts are available - metals and enzymes. But in 2000, Lister and McMillan independently developed a third catalyst - asymmetric organic catalysis.
Associate researcher at , Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out in an interview with Beijing News reporter that the asymmetric organic catalysis developed by Lister and McMillan solves the problem of efficient synthesis of chiral organic matter.
"Simply put, there are chiral molecules in organic matter, which are divided into left-handed and right-handed. In organic synthesis of , left-handed and right-handed molecules usually appear together. The problem they want to solve is the specificity problem, that is, only one chiral molecule is synthesized, and it is efficient synthesis. Asymmetric organic catalysis solves this problem." Deng Liezheng explained.
"Asymmetric organic catalysis makes organic chemical reactions happen in the direction of chiral molecules that people hope to obtain. This year's two Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry invented a method that makes the catalytic reaction more efficient, 7,000 times faster than the previous method," said Deng Liezheng. "In other words, this method is simpler, more efficient, greener, and more environmentally friendly."
, Chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said, "This catalytic concept is both simple and clever. In fact, many people want to know why we didn't think of it earlier." What is the main application of this research?
Benjamin Lister was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1968. He is currently working at the Max Planck Coal Research Institute in Millheim, Germany.
Liszt and his wife. Source: Nobel Prize Official Twitter
David McMillan was born in Scotland, England in 1968 and is currently a professor of chemistry at Princeton University in the United States. From 2010 to 2015, he served as the head of the Department of Chemistry at Princeton University.
David McMillan. Video screenshot
Nobel Prize official website said that since 2000, organic catalysis has developed at an astonishing rate. But Lister and McMillan are undoubtedly leaders in the field, confirming that organic catalysis can be used to drive a variety of chemical reactions.
Using these reactions, researchers can build anything more efficiently, including new drugs, molecules that can capture light in solar cell , etc. In this way, organic catalysis is bringing the greatest benefits to human beings.
"Asymmetric organic catalysis is mainly used in drug synthesis." Deng Liezheng explained that drugs are chiral, while effective drugs are usually left-handed molecules, while right-handed molecules are harmful. However, in the past drug synthesis, left-handed molecules and right-handed molecules appeared together. Asymmetric organic catalysis solved this specific problem. Only the left-handed molecules that researchers wanted were synthesized, and the unwanted right-handed molecules would not be generated.
professor of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Beijing University of Chemical Technology Ding Xuejia pointed out to the Beijing News reporter that when building molecules, two different molecules can often appear, just like our hands, they are mirror images of each other. Chemists usually only need one of them, especially when producing drugs, which can relatively simply create a large number of different asymmetric molecules, simplifying the production of existing drugs, such as paroxetine used to treat depression and anxiety.
In addition, asymmetric organic catalysis also has important potential applications for artificial synthetic proteins in the future. Deng Liezheng said that people have been paying attention to the news of artificial starch recently, and the development of efficient asymmetric organic catalytic methods is of great significance to artificial synthetic proteins.
"Protein and amino acid , which make up proteins, are chiral. To efficiently and large-scale artificially synthesized proteins, the first thing to do is to efficiently synthesize chiral amino acids on a large scale. This asymmetric organic catalytic reaction method discovered by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year is of great significance."
Nobel Prize in Chemistry is no longer a "comprehensive science award"?
"The biggest feature of this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is that it returns to pure chemistry and is a veritable Nobel Prize in Chemistry." Deng Liezheng said.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has always been controversial. Many chemists believe that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is often awarded to "non-chemists" and has gradually become a "comprehensive science award".
In the past few decades, scientists in the fields of biochemistry , molecular biology , physical chemistry, biophysics and even materials science have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. According to statistics, in the decade before 2012, only four awards were awarded for chemical research in a strict sense.
Some analysis pointed out that in the initial stage of the Nobel Prize, biology was still in its infancy, so this award was not established at that time. The field of chemistry has a large span and has formed many interdisciplinary disciplines, so chemistry awards are often awarded to scientists in other research directions.
However, Deng Liezheng said that this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is an encouraging and gratifying award for those who are engaged in pure chemistry research, especially those who are studying organic chemistry. "It finally returned to its original origin and was awarded to pure chemists - asymmetric organic catalysis is a typical chemical problem."
Ding Xuejia also agrees with this. He said that the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was once considered a "comprehensive science award", which has rewarded many traditional chemists and many work that has intersected chemistry. "This reward for asymmetric catalysis of organic small molecules is a return to the recognition of traditional chemistry to some extent."
Nobel Prize in Chemistry Knowledge
From 1901 to 2020, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded 112 times, with a total of 186 winners. Since British biochemist Frederick Sanger won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice in 1958 and 1980, the actual number of winners was 185.
The youngest Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry is Jean Frederick Jorio-Curi , and he was only 35 years old when he won the award in 1935. The oldest Nobel Prize in Chemistry is John Goodenav, who was 97 years old when he won the award in 2019. As of 2020, a total of 7 women have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In addition to Frederick Sanger won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry twice, two Nobel Prize winners have won other Nobel Prizes . Including Marie Curie - she won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, and Lenas Pauling - he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and the Nobel Prize in Peace in 1961. Lenas Pauling is also the only winner who has won the award twice.
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to two female scientists, Emmanuel Carpentier from France and Jennifer Dudner from the United States, for their "development of a genome editing method."
Beijing News reporter Xie Lian
Intern editor Liu Xixian proofreading Li Ming
