Nobel Prize 2022 in Chemistry

 

Lack of knowledge in Worldly affairs of people like me transcends various levels proving ignorance many a times !  - of the many many things that we do not know is ‘CuAAC-click reaction’ – which is explained as the azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition - a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between an azide and a terminal or internal alkyne to give a 1,2,3-triazole. Rolf Huisgen was the first to understand the scope of this organic reaction.

This year’s (2022) Nobel Prize in Chemistry  has been jointly awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten P. Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless, "for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry".

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry  is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences to scientists in the various fields of chemistry. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896. These prizes are awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine. As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The first Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded in 1901 to Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, of the Netherlands. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award prize that has varied throughout the years. The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death.

There have been eight years for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was not awarded (1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940-42). There were also nine years for which the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was delayed for one year. The Prize was not awarded in 1914, as the Nobel Committee for Chemistry decided that none of that year's nominations met the necessary criteria, but was awarded to Theodore William Richards in 1915 and counted as the 1914 prize

The term bioorthogonal chemistry refers to any chemical reaction that can occur inside of living systems without interfering with native biochemical processes. The term was coined by Carolyn R. Bertozzi in 2003. Since its introduction, the concept of the bioorthogonal reaction has enabled the study of biomolecules such as glycans, proteins, and lipids in real time in living systems without cellular toxicity.    Bertozzi has been  awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022 for her development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.

In chemical synthesis, "click" chemistry is a class of biocompatible small molecule reactions commonly used in bioconjugation, allowing the joining of substrates of choice with specific biomolecules. Click chemistry is not a single specific reaction, but describes a way of generating products that follow examples in nature, which also generates substances by joining small modular units. Click reactions occur in one pot, are not disturbed by water, generate minimal and inoffensive byproducts, and are "spring-loaded. These qualities make click reactions particularly suitable to the problem of isolating and targeting molecules in complex biological environments. The term "click chemistry" was coined by K. Barry Sharpless in 1998, who too is awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Morten Peter Meldal  is a Danish chemist. He is a professor of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is best known for developing the CuAAC-click reaction, concurrent with but independent of Valery V. Fokin and K. Barry Sharpless.

Karl Barry Sharpless is an American chemist and a two-time Nobel laureate in Chemistry known for his work on stereoselective reactions and click chemistry. Sharpless was awarded half of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions", and now is recipient of another Nobel Prize, this time  one third of the 2022 prize.  

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

13^th Oct 2022.