Bertozzi, Meldal, Sharpless win 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: what did they discover?

October 5, 2022  16:49

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded to Carolyn Bertozzi (USA), Morten Meldal (Denmark), and Barry Sharpless (USA) "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry," according to a press release by the Nobel Committee.

Click chemistry is a class of chemical reactions that enable the efficient production of desired molecules under any conditions. Bioorthogonal chemistry is reactions that can occur in living systems – but without interfering with biological processes.

For Barry Sharpless, this is the second Nobel Prize in Chemistry; in 2001, he won the prize for stereoselective oxidation reactions. He is the fifth scientist to receive this award for the second time.

Sharpless was born on April 28, 1941 in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA). In 1968, he received a doctorate degree from Stanford University, and since 1985 he has been a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. In the early 2000s, he developed the concept of "click chemistry," which ensures a fast reaction and eliminates unwanted byproducts.

Morten Meldal was born on January 16, 1954 in Denmark. He is currently a professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. In 1983-1988, he was a researcher in organic chemistry at the University of Copenhagen. In 1985-1986, he worked at the University of Cambridge, in particular, at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology.

Meldal and Sharpless developed – independently of each other – the copper catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition, an efficient chemical reaction that is now widely used, particularly in pharmaceutical development and genetic mapping.

Carolyn Bertozzi was born on October 10, 1966 in Boston (Massachusetts, USA). She is currently a professor at Stanford University. Since 2005, he has been a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and since 2011, a member of the Academy of Medicine, and since 2018, a member of The Royal Society of London. Bertozzi works in bioorthogonal chemistry. The Nobel Committee noted that she took click chemistry to a new level and started using it when working with living organisms.

Her work also helped to understand that glycans – the sugar structures – are no less important than RNA and DNA. To map the glycans, Bertozzi performed bioorthogonal reactions inside living organisms, and they did not disturb the normal chemical composition of the cell.

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Benjamin List (Germany) and David MacMillan (USA) for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis. In 2020, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna were awarded the Nobel Prize for their development of a genome editing method, the so-called CRISPR/Cas molecular scissors.


 
 
 
 
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