The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Stanford University, California; Morten Meldal, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; and K. Barry Sharpless, Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 is about making difficult processes easier, according to the organization. Sharpless and Meldal reportedly laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry – click chemistry – in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Bertozzi took click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilizing it in living organisms.
“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, in a press release from the organization.
Sharpless, who is being awarded his second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, started the ball rolling, according to the Academy. Around 2000, he reportedly coined the concept of click chemistry, a form of simple and reliable chemistry in which reactions occur quickly and unwanted by-products are avoided. Shortly afterwards, Meldal and Sharpless, independently of each other, presented what is now the “crown jewel” of click chemistry: the copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition, an “elegant and efficient” chemical reaction that is now in widespread use. It is utilized in the development of pharmaceuticals, for mapping DNA and creating materials that are more fit for purpose.
Bertozzi reportedly took click chemistry to a new level. To map important but elusive biomolecules on the surface of cells – glycans – she developed click reactions that work inside living organisms. Her bioorthogonal reactions take place without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell. These reactions are now used globally to explore cells and track biological processes. Using bioorthogonal reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals, which are now being tested in clinical trials.
Read the entire press release at www.nobelprize.org
