rewarded years later with the Nobel Prize. Donald J. Cram, Saul Winstein Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, won the 1987 Nobel in chemistry for his research into host-guest chemistry, a field he helped create.
Cram, 74, began focusing on host-guest chemistry as his main interest in 1970. The field involves the creation of synthetic host molecules that mimic some of the actions performed by enzymes in cells. The host molecules attract and bind to specific guest molecules, which can be either molecules or inorganic ions.
His research has opened many new areas of investigation in organic chemistry, with applications in both basic research and pharmaceutical production and medical testing.
Cram's classic paper is "Studies in stereochemistry. 10. The rule of `steric control of asymmetric induction' in the synthesis of acrylic systems," Journal of the American Chemical Society, 74:5825-35, 1952, with more than 700 citations.
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