3 win Nobel Prize for work in ‘click chemistry’

STOCKHOLM — Three scientists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry.

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According to The Associated Press, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Wednesday that Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless won the award for their work in developing “click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry” – a method of quickly attaching molecules for use in designing medicines.

“The Nobel Prize in chemistry 2022 is about making difficult processes easier,” the academy said in a news release. “Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal have laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry – click chemistry – in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Carolyn Bertozzi has taken click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilizing it in living organisms.”

This marks the second Nobel Prize awarded to Sharpless, who also won in 2001, the AP reported. He joins four other double laureates: John Bardeen, Marie Sklodowska Curie, Linus Pauling and Frederick Sanger, the committee tweeted.

Earlier this week, Swedish scientist Svante Paabo was named the winner of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his research on human evolution, while Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the physics award for “pioneering quantum information science,” the committee said.

The remaining Nobel Prizes for 2022 will be announced in the coming days:

• Thursday: Nobel Prize in literature
• Friday: Nobel Peace Prize
• Monday: Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences

Each prize includes an award of 10 million Swedish kronor, or about $900,000, according to the AP.

– The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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