Nobel: What is click chemistry, for which this time the Nobel of Chemistry was given, why it is important for common people, know

The Nobel Committee in Stockholm, Sweden announced the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday. Caroline Bertozzi of Stanford University in the US, Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research and Morten Mieldol of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, have been given this honor jointly. All three were selected for this award for an important discovery of chemistry – ‘click chemistry’. How important is the discovery of these scientists, it can be gauged from the fact that today click chemistry has an important contribution in the manufacture of medicines, diagnostics of patients and also in the manufacture of new substances.
What is the discovery of the three scientists?
Click chemistry is the process of joining molecules together to form new molecules. Suppose you can mix small molecules together and then continuously mix them together to form large, complex and diverse molecules. This makes it much easier to create new materials. This is the basis of click chemistry. However, the reaction between two different molecules is not always certain.
How is the problem of non-reaction between molecules solved?
This was the biggest challenge before the scientists 20 years ago. The problem was that the molecules could not bind together without reacting with each other. Morten Mieldall and Barry Sharpless discovered chemical agents that could bind to molecules, and then add other molecules one after the other to form complex clusters of molecules. These were called ‘chemical buckles’. Like the ‘buckles’ connecting the belt. Barry Sharpless and Morten Mieldall independently discovered the first buckles that could react with molecules and bind to them. The specialty of these buckles was that they could attach only to a particular type of molecule, and not to every type of molecule. Scientists can also modify them in their own way, so that different types of molecules can be joined to form long chains. Today, through this click chemistry, large and complex structures are being created by connecting molecules. They are being used from making medicines to making polymers and new substances.
How did this discovery become more important to the medical field?
However, it is also an important discovery as to why one would want to combine these molecules to produce complex molecules. So let’s say you can match a glowing molecule to the bacteria present in the cells in a human being. After this, you will be able to track those bacteria under the microscope as well. That is, you can find out their position all the time. The tracking of any cell in the human body has proved to be a major discovery in itself. The same discovery was made by Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University. However, Bertozzi had to find a click reaction in which the binding of these specific molecules to the cells would not prove toxic to the cells. Bertozzi named it bio-orthogonal chemistry. Chemical reactions that do not affect cells even when molecules are attached. That is, Bertozzi’s discovery made it easy to attach molecules to human cells, which is a very useful discovery. It is now easier to monitor cells attached to molecules, allowing the body to diagnose. Apart from this, this technology is also used to deliver drugs to a targeted place in the human body.
Know who are these three scientists?
1. Carolyn Bertozzi
Carolyn Bertozzi is a well-known face of American science. She has done a lot of work in the field of biology along with chemistry. He discovered the adaptive response of living systems and chemical substances and named it bioorthogonal chemistry. At present, she is doing research on chemical reactions on cancer, viral infection. He has also started a startup in the field of Biotechnology.
2. Carl Barry Sharpless
Carl Barry Sharpless of America is one of the few scientists who has received the Nobel Prize twice so far. Prior to this, he had also received the Nobel in Chemistry in 2001. Then his discovery was related to the oxidation reaction. Through this, many such substances, which were previously generally considered impossible to be made, became possible. He also gave the word in 1998 for the click chemistry for which he was awarded the Nobel in 2022.
3. Morten Meeldoll
Morten Meeldol is currently Professor of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Many achievements have been added to his name. The techniques discovered by him are today used to characterize immunity against cancer. Meeldall received the Nobel Prize in 2022 for his breakthrough in the process of linking azide-alkyne molecules through copper. Actually, this process is helping a lot in developing medicines. Apart from this, his invention technique is proving helpful in the identification of DNA.

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