Nobel chemistry prize goes to US, British enzyme researchers
Americans Frances Arnold and George Smith and Briton Gregory Winter won for using directed evolution to produce enzymes for new chemicals and pharmaceuticals
Scientists Frances Arnold, George Smith and Gregory Winter won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for research using directed evolution to produce enzymes and antibodies for new chemicals and pharmaceuticals, the award-giving body said on Wednesday.
Arnold, only the fifth woman to win a chemistry Nobel, was awarded half of the 9 million Swedish krona (US$1 million) prize while fellow American Smith and Winter of Britain shared the other half.
“This year’s Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have been inspired by the power of evolution and used the same principles – genetic change and selection – to develop proteins that solve mankind’s chemical problems,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement.
“They have applied the principles of Darwin in test tubes. They have used the molecular understanding we have of the evolutionary process and recreated the process in their labs,” head of the Academy’s Nobel Chemistry committee Claes Gustafsson told reporters. “They have been able to make evolution many 1000s of times faster and redirect it to create new proteins.”
Arnold is the second woman to win a Nobel Prize this year after Canada’s Donna Strickland shared the physics award on Tuesday.