"Click!" - Molecules are combined together
2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry aims to simplify the difficult process. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry, click chemistry. In this chemistry, molecular building blocks are fast and efficiently combined. Carolyn Bertozzi takes click chemistry to a new dimension and begins to use it in organisms.
Chemists have been eager to build increasingly complex molecules. In drug research, this often involves artificial reconstruction of natural molecules with medicinal properties. This leads to many admirable molecular structures, but producing these is often time-consuming and very expensive.
"This year's Chemistry Prize deals with not overly complex problems, but easy and simple things. Functional molecules can even be constructed through a straightforward route," said Johan Åqvist, chairman of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
This is Barry Sharpless's second Nobel Prize in Chemistry! It was him who started the process. Around 2000, he created the concept of "click chemistry", a simple and reliable form of chemistry in which reactions occur quickly and avoid unnecessary by-products.
Not long after, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless each independently proposed the current pearl in the crown of chemistry - copper catalytic azide-alkyne cycloaddition. This is an elegant and efficient chemical reaction that is now widely used in drug development, DNA localization and the creation of more suitable materials.
Carolyn Bertozzi Take click chemistry to a new level. To map the important but elusive biomolecule on the cell surface, glycan , she developed a click response that works in the organisms. The bioorthogonal reaction she developed can occur without disrupting the normal chemical reaction of the cells.
These reactions are now used worldwide to explore cellular and track biological processes. Using bioorthogonal reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer drugs and have now entered clinical trials.
Click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions brought chemistry into the era of functionalism, bringing the greatest benefits to mankind.
More:
Barry Sharpless becomes the fifth scientist to win the Nobel Prize in twice! (He last won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001). Before him, the two scientists who won the Nobel Prize for were: John Bardeen (two Nobel Prizes in Physics in 1956 and 1972), Marie Skłodowska Curie (two Nobel Prizes in Physics in 1903 and Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911), Linus Pauling (two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry in 1954 and Nobel Prize in Peace in 1962) and Frederick Sanger (two Nobel Prizes in 1958 and 1980).
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