Nobel Prize winners "a great advert for chemistry"
The 2018 chemistry Nobel prize has been awarded to Frances Arnold from the California Institute of Technology, George Smith from the University of Missouri, US and Gregory Winter from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.
Our president, Professor Dame Carol Robinson, said: "Today’s Nobel Prize in chemistry highlights the tremendous role of chemistry in contributing to many areas of our lives including pharmaceuticals, detergents, green catalysis and biofuels. It is a great advert for chemistry to have impact in so many areas.
"Directed evolution of enzymes and antibody technology are subjects that I have followed with keen interest; both are now transforming medicine. It would have been hard to predict the outcome of this research at the start – this speaks to the need for basic research.
"I am delighted to see these areas of chemistry recognised and congratulate all three Nobel Laureates."
They harnessed the power of evolution
One half of the prize is jointly split between Professor George Smith from the University of Missouri, US and Professor Gregory Winter, one of our Honorary Fellows, from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, who developed a technique called phage display.
The other half of the prize went to Professor Frances Arnold, from the California Institute of Technology. As covered in Chemistry World, Frances Arnold is only the fifth woman to be recognised with the Nobel Prize in chemistry, some nine years since Ada Yonath received the prize.
See below for a video from our recent coverage of the EuChemS congress, which we hosted in Liverpool and at which she was a plenary speaker.
Professor Arnold told us about her research, saying: "Chemists are inspired and awed by the biological world but what they should really be inspired by is the process by which biology discovers chemistry: that's called evolution.
"I practise evolution in the laboratory. We can evolve enzymes, these amazing catalysts that biology has, to do chemistry that was invented by humans, not by nature.
"This marvellous process by which innovation happens in the biological world, I contain that in the laboratory and I can make enzymes that catalyse wonderful reactions, making molecules that chemists have a very hard time making. It is a thrilling time to be in the biological chemistry interface."
Coverage round-up
News of the 2018 Nobel Prize in chemistry has reached all corners of the globe. To give a flavour of some of those pieces, here are some links to the online versions of those stories (which are all third-party sites):
Coverage in the USA includes the Washington Post, CNN and the Boston Herald, as well as reaching China, Canada, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Closer to home, the BBC's chemistry Nobel piece was also translated into Portuguese on BBC Brasil, as well as featuring in Times Higher Education.