Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022
Source: Indian Express
GS III: Science and Technology
What is discussed under Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022?
- About Click Chemistry
Why in News?
Carolyn R Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K Barry Sharpless were honoured for their work in ‘click chemistry,’ which has implications in medical research, including cancer treatment.
About Click Chemistry
- In click chemistry, molecules snap together quickly and securely, eliminating the need for a lengthy, difficult procedure and an abundance of undesirable byproducts.
Image by Florian Pircher from Pixabay - This research has implications in medical science, particularly cancer therapy.
- Instead of attempting to encourage resistant carbon atoms into reacting, Barry Sharpless proposed to begin with smaller molecules that already possessed a complete carbon frame.
- Chemists can avoid many of the side reactions by using simple reactions in which there is a strong inherent urge for the molecules to link together.
- Sharpless named this resilient approach of constructing molecules “click chemistry,” claiming that even if click chemistry cannot produce perfect duplicates of natural molecules, it will be feasible to identify compounds that perform similar tasks.
Applications
- Meldal’s work resulted in the valuable chemical structure known as triazoles, which are present in medications, dyes, and agricultural compounds.
- He also discovered that the process he utilised could bind together a wide range of compounds.
- Bertozzi developed an efficient and unique approach for mapping glycans, which are carbohydrate-based polymers produced by all living creatures, based on the work of Sharpless and Meldal.
- Bertozzi is interested in glycans on the surface of tumour cells.
- Her research has revealed that some glycans appear to shield tumours from the body’s immune system by causing immune cells to shut down.
- Bertozzi and her colleagues developed a novel form of biological medicine to circumvent this protective mechanism.
- They combined a glycan-specific antibody with enzymes that degrade glycans on the surface of tumour cells. This medication is now being investigated in clinical studies on persons with advanced cancer.
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