Developers of ‘click’ reactions used to improve cancer-drug targeting win Nobel Prize
Three scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry, which has been used to improve the targeting of cancer therapies.
K. Barry Sharpless, PhD, W.M. Keck professor of chemistry at Scripps Research, Morten Meldal, PhD, professor in the department of chemistry at University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and Carolyn R. Bertozzi, PhD, professor in the department of chemistry at Stanford University, shared the honor, which is the second Nobel win for Sharpless, according to a press release.
“This year’s prize in chemistry deals with not overcomplicating matters, instead working with what is easy and simple,” Johan Åqvist, chair of the Nobel committee for chemistry, said in the release. “Functional molecules can be built even by taking a straightforward route.”
Sharpless and Meldal set the foundation for click chemistry, a functional form of chemistry in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly while avoiding unwanted byproducts, the press release states. Bertozzi used click chemistry in living organisms, developing click reactions to track key but elusive glycans, special carbohydrates on the surface of cells.
These bioorthogonal reactions, which do not disrupt the normal cell chemistry, have been used worldwide to study cells and monitor biological processes, as well as improve the targeting of cancer drugs that are being tested in clinical trials, according to the press release.
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