The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced today that they have awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless for their development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry. Bertozzi is a dual member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. She served as Chair of the Committee On Being a Scientist: Responsible Conduct in Research, 3rd Edition; and as a Member of the Committee on Challenges for the Chemical Sciences in the 21st Century and the Committee on Assessing the Importance and Impact of Glycomics and Glycosciences. In 2016, Bertozzi received the NAS Award in Chemical Sciences for founding bio-orthogonal chemistry.
According to NobelPrize.org, the three laureates have brought chemistry into the era of functionalism with the development of click chemistry, which allows molecular building blocks to be snapped together, and bio-orthogonal chemistry. Bertozzi modified click reactions for use in living cells and these bio-orthogonal reactions have been used in developing cancer immunotherapies and several other applications.
The NAM would like to congratulate all three laureates for their incredible discovery and well-earned recognition.
