#BYMEspresso☕: Click Chemistry That Won 2022 Nobel Prize
Carolyn Bertozzi and Barry Sharpless of the United States and Morten Meldal of Denmark have been given the Prize for developing the relatively recent field of ‘Click Chemistry’.
This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has gone to three scientists who, through their work, have made a strong case for adopting an alternative approach to producing new complex molecules in the laboratory or industry, which minimises waste and increases overall efficiency.
Carolyn Bertozzi and Barry Sharpless of the United States and Morten Meldal of Denmark have been given the Prize for developing the relatively recent field of ‘Click Chemistry’ and demonstrating its vast potential in the pharmaceutical and other industries.
This is the second chemistry Nobel for Barry Sharpless who took the lead in this project and started the ball rolling.
He coined the concept of Click Chemistry around 2000.
The term "Click Chemistry" is used to describe highly yielding reactions, broad in scope, create only byproducts that can be removed without chromatography, are stereospecific, simple to perform, and can be conducted in easily removable or benign solvents.
Bertozzi elevated Click Chemistry to new heights. She developed click reactions that work inside living organisms to map important but elusive biomolecules on the surface of cells called glycans.
These reactions are now used all over the world to investigate cells and track biological processes. Researchers have improved the targeting of cancer drugs using bioorthogonal reactions, which are now being tested in clinical trials.