Click Chemistry: Three scientists, Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and Barry Sharpless, have been awarded the Nobel Prize 2022 in chemistry for the development of Click Chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on Tuesday, October 4 2022.

BREAKING NEWS:
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2022 #NobelPrize in Chemistry to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.” pic.twitter.com/5tu6aOedy4

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 5, 2022

Making complicated processes simpler was the focus of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Click chemistry and bioorthogonal reactions had made developing complex molecules found in nature less complex and time-consuming and had brought chemistry into the functionalism age, which would prove to be indispensable in the long term.

According to the Nobel Prize, “The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022 was awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry. Sharpless and Meldal have laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry – click chemistry – in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently. Bertozzi has taken click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilising it in living organisms.”

What Is Click Chemistry?

"Click Chemistry" is a category of chemical reactions that are quick, versatile, and produce a high quantity of products. It describes the process by which complex molecular clusters can fuse to form new compounds.

This method is quite similar to the compounds that are formed naturally by the fusing of microscopic building components.

Click Chemistry is being used to map DNA, develop medications, and make materials that are more suited to their intended use. 

Bioorthogonal processes are also being used by researchers to enhance the targeting of cancer drugs. 

How Did The Three Scientists Work On Click Chemistry?

Barry Sharpless, of Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, came up with the concept of Click Chemistry two decades ago. It was a kind of straightforward chemistry that could produce quick reactions without unwanted byproducts. The process required a strong covalent bond to be formed, as opposed to the selective but lesser lock-and-key interactions that are common among many biomolecules.

Later on, Sharpless and Morten Meldal, of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, independently established a key reaction that could be utilized to connect two molecules- an azide and an alkyne. 

According to Meldal, the azide-alkyne reaction was unintentionally found when he was working at the Carlsberg Laboratory in Valby, Denmark with his collaborator Christian Tornøe.

The method then quickly spread over all of chemistry. The click chemistry between molecules of increasing size and complexity has since been made possible by many chemists.

Carolyn Bertozzi, of Stanford University in California, was intrigued by the idea of using click chemistry to map the intricate sugar-based polymers that are found on the surface of live cells without jeopardizing the cells. However, the copper used to catalyse the reaction proved to be a hindrance as it was toxic for cells.

She overcame this obstacle by creating the bioorthogonal processes, which are now being employed to facilitate the development of cancer drugs.

Barry Sharpless is now the fifth scientist in history to win two Nobel prizes in chemistry. He won his first Nobel Prize in 2001. The trio’s contributions to Click Chemistry are now deemed one of the greatest gifts to medicinal science and humanity.