2021 Winners of the Nobel Prize in the Field of Chemistry
Come one, come all, hear chemistry’s call! In this week’s blog, we continue our series on the Nobel Prizes of 2021 and delve into the chemistry side of things. Discover the scientists and specialists contributing to the science that lays the bedrock for so much medical study and practice.
This year’s Nobel prize in Chemistry went to Benjamin List and David W.C. MacMillan for “the development of asymmetric organocatalysis” (as announced to the public on October 6th, 2021 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, who made the decision).
Know the Nobel
Benjamin List was born in 1968 in Frankfurt, Germany. He earned his Ph.D. in 1997 from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany and is currently the Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.
David W.C. MacMillan was born in 1968 in Bellshill, UK. He earned his Ph.D. in 1996 from the University of California, Irvine, USA. He is a professor at Princeton University, USA.
The prize amount totals 10 million Swedish kronor (~14.3 million CAD), shared equally between both Laureates.
The Science Within
In the construction of chemical compounds, what is often produced is two molecules that are mirror images of one another (as shown below), much in the way that our hands are. These two variants often have different effects on our bodies; the molecule on the left in the image below has a lemon aroma while the one on the right has an orange-like smell.
List and MacMillan were presented the award for their separate work in 2000 in developing asymmetric organocatalysis. This is a chemical process that allows us to efficiently synthesize just one of the molecules in the pair of mirror images.
In brief, catalysts accelerate chemical reactions. In many cases, chemical reactions would not happen fast enough to be of use in a biochemical system or to be practical in applications without the presence of a catalyst. In their work, List and MacMillan explored outside the range of the common two types of catalysts, metals and enzymes. They developed catalytic processes that could accelerate reactions producing only one of two possible mirror images, or asymmetric catalysis.
List’s work led him to study proline, an amino acid found to have good catalytic activity which he proved could also drive asymmetric catalysis. MacMillan studied asymmetric catalysis in organic molecules and eventually coined the term organocatalysis when submitting his work for publication.
Chemical Charm
Now we can effectively synthesize one of two mirror-image molecules… so what? Organocatalysts are brilliantly useful in chemical reactions and lead to rewarding applications.
Asymmetric molecules play an intrinsic role in pharmaceuticals and organocatalysis allows large volumes to be produced in a relatively simple manner. This means that we not only streamline the production of existing medications, but we can also artificially make molecules that before could only be isolated in small quantities from rare sources. Many of these rarer molecules may have curative effects and further application to medicine.
Furthermore, organocatalysts facilitate more environmentally healthy chemistry. By making the production process of desired molecules more efficient, the amount of waste that is made per unit of a product obtained is reduced. Additionally, many effective organocatalysts are inexpensive and can be used with a wide range of chemical reactions.
So to future chemists and chemistry lovers, we hope that this week’s blog has catalyzed your interest in chemistry a bit and accelerated the reaction between you and science.
Sources
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2021/press-release/
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2021/popular-information/
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/list-macmillan-win-2021-nobel-prize-chemistry-2021-10-06/
About the author: April Sui is a second-year student in Medical Sciences at Western University in London, Ontario. She’s currently working with Hashtag Health Podcast (based at UWO) and the International Predental Student Alliance. Bookworm, origami fanatic and French tutor, you can find her on LinkedIn or Facebook.
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