The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was given for the transformation of chemical molecules into a “constructor”

Russian scientists spoke about the significance of the discovery made by the laureates

A fast method for obtaining new substances by combining small elements was awarded the Nobel Prize on Wednesday. It’s called “click chemistry” or bioorthogonal chemistry. The awards were given to two American scientists – Barry Sharpless and Caroline Bertozzi, as well as the Dane Morten Meldal.

Sharpless receives the Nobel Prize for the second time … Before that, he was awarded in 2001 for almost the same thing – he is the one who actually introduced the term “click chemistry” into scientific practice. He and Morten Meldal, in fact, laid the foundation for this method, which allows you to effectively connect completely different molecular blocks to each other. And Carolyn Bertozzi began to use the results of this method in medicine, in particular, in the development of methods for delivering drugs to cancerous tumors.

As explained to us by a member of the Institute of Molecular Biology. Engelhardt RAS Alexander Chudinov, click chemistry is an alternative, targeted way to obtain new candidate chemicals for future pharmaceuticals.

“The principle of how exactly it is possible to connect the previously unconnected, I would compare with a children’s designer, in which a third adapter element is used to attach two parts to each other,” says Chudinov. – It is implemented as follows: a terminal acetylene group must be added to one of the molecules, and an azido group to the other. When they get close, a strong bond is formed. How to attach a protein molecule to a sugar molecule? To do this, an acetylene group must be added to the sugar molecule, and an azido group to the protein. Thus, thanks to this “adapter”, the protein will firmly attach to the sugar. This method has already gained great popularity, and not only among chemists and biochemists. If a specialist has a set of necessary elements and clear instructions – what to mix with what, he can easily get the right connection himself.

Comment by Irina Masulis, Deputy Director for Research at the Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

– An award in chemistry for the development of the principles of click reactions and the use of this methodology to modify the products of biological reactions is quite expected. As always in science, this was led by a long way of studying the intermediate products of biochemical reactions, on the one hand, and an understanding of quantum chemical processes during the interconversion of organic compounds. That is, it is the result of the convergent (combined) development of modern chemistry and physicochemical biology. Progress in these areas requires very serious resources in the field of analytical equipment, the development of computer chemistry methods and methods for testing organic synthesis reactions in vitro. The works of the laureates mean a new round in obtaining tools for studying reactions in living systems.