Stockholm: Carolyn R. Bertozzi and C. Barry Sharpless of the United States and Morten Meldahl of Denmark have shared the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Wednesday.
Sharpless and Meldahl have laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry, click chemistry, in which molecular building blocks are linked quickly and efficiently, Xinhua news agency reported.
Bertozzi took click chemistry to a new dimension and began using it in living organisms, the academy said in a statement.
“This year’s Chemistry Prize is not about over-complicating things, instead working with what is easy and simple. Functional molecules can be built even in an easy way,” said Johan Aquist, chairman of the Nobel Committee in Chemistry.
“I can barely breathe!” Bertozzi said in the on-site phone interview of her reactions. Of hearing the news in the middle of the night, she said: “Shock is an understatement!”
This year’s prize is SEK 10 million (about US$920,000), which will be divided equally among the three laureates.