Current Affairs » Nobel Prize 2022: Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and Karl Barry Shapless awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Nobel Prize 2022: Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and Karl Barry Shapless awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Key Takeaways

  • Karl Barry Sharpless, Morten P. Meldal, and Carolyn R. Bertozzi have all been given the 2022 Chemistry Nobel Prize. Meldal is a Danish scientist, whereas Bertozzi & Sharpless are Americans.
  • The prize was presented for advancing bioorthogonal chemistry and Click Chemistry.
  • This Royal Swedish Sciences Academy began its annual tradition of announcing the recipients of the coveted Nobel prizes on Monday.
  • Three scientists shared the Nobel Prizes in Physics on Tuesday and Medicine on Monday.
  • Only four Nobel laureates have received the award twice. Marie Sklodowska Curie, Bardeen, Linus Pauling, and Frederick Sanger Sharpless were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.
  • K. Barry Sharpless was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1941.

About the Meldal, Bertozzi, and Sharpless Project

Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 for ushering chemistry into the functionalism age and laying the groundwork for click chemistry. They share the award alongside Carolyn Bertozzi, who advanced click chemistry by employing it to map cells. The bioorthogonal reactions are helping to improve cancer therapies, among other things.

To summarise, Sharpless coined the term ‘click chemistry’ and did a lot of work on it; Meldal, individually of Sharpless, discovered a unique chemical composition known as ‘triazole,’ which has many vital applications; and Bertozzi went on to develop click reactions that might work from within living organisms — ‘bioorthogonal’ reactions (a word she coined), actually occur inside living systems without trying to interfere with native biological pathways.

About Nobel Prize and its worth

Alfred Nobel envisioned a better world. He thought that through education, science, and humanism, people might contribute to the betterment of society. This is why he established an award to honour the inventions that have had the most significant positive impact on humanity. From 1901, the Nobel Prize was already given in literature, peace, physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, and a memorial prize in economics.

When Alfred Nobel made his final will in 1895 and bequeathed a large portion of his income to the creation of a prize and the ensuing Nobel Foundation, the financial foundations for the Prize were established. Even more than a century back, several separate prize-awarding organisations have chosen Nobel Prize winners in each prize division in line with the directives Nobel provided in his will.

Additionally, several outreach organisations and initiatives have been created in the present to motivate future generations and spread information about the Nobel Prize via events, exhibits, educational initiatives, and digital outreach.

Click chemistry

Chemistry has entered the functionalism age thanks to clicking chemistry & bioorthogonal reactions. This provides an advantage to humanity. To target and stop cell infections, chemists frequently attempt to replicate the complex chemical compounds in nature. This has applications in the area of medicine, among other things. But this procedure could be complicated and drawn out.

About Carolyn R. Bertozzi

USA-born Carolyn R. Bertozzi, birthed in 1966. United States, UC Berkeley, 1993, Ph.D. Professor Anne T. & Robert M. Bass at Stanford University in California, USA. Bertozzi founded the area of bioorthogonal chemistry, which is a collection of chemical processes that enables researchers to examine molecules & their interactions with living creatures without interfering with normal biological functions.

About Morten Meldal

Danish scientist Morten Meldal teaches chemistry at the Institution of Copenhagen. Danish-born Morten Meldal was born in 1954. Tech College of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark, was awarded a Ph.D. in 1986. Professor at Copenhagen University in Denmark. His academic career began when he enrolled at the (DTU) Technical University of Denmark. He worked as a freelance research assistant in organic synthesis at (DTU) and the University of Copenhagen from 1983 until 1988. He also completed postdoctoral research at Cambridge in the 1980s. He was hired as an adjunct lecturer at DTU in 1996.

About K. Barry Sharpless

K. Barry Sharpless was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1941. from Stanford University in California, USA, in 1968. Professor W. M. Keck at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, USA.

A scientist from the United States who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001 & 2022. With William S. Knowles & Noyori Ryji, he was awarded the prize in 2001 for creating the first chiral catalyst. He shared the 2022 prize for his achievements in Click chemistry & bioorthogonal chemistry with Morten Meldal & Carolyn Bertozzi. Only five people, including Sharpless, have won two Nobel Prizes.