The 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry goes to two researchers who pioneered a new way of assembling large molecules, known as click chemistry, and one who applied that principle to probe the workings of cells without disrupting them, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced today (October 5). The laureates are Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University, Morten Meldal of the University of Copenhagen, and K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research Institute in California.
“This year’s Prize in Chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple,” says Johan Åqvist, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, in a press release about the prize. “Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route.”
This is the second chemistry Nobel for Sharpless, who won in 2001 “for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions.” The year prior, he had “coined the concept of click chemistry, ...
