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Stanford Professor Carolyn R. Bertozzi is among three winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2022, according to an announcement Wednesday morning from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.
Bertozzi and co-winners Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless won "for the development of click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry," according to a news release from the academy.
Bertozzi is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and the Baker Family Director of Stanford ChEM-H.
The announcement praised Bertozzi for taking "click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilizing it in living organisms."
The academy described Bertozzi's breakthrough research as having a major impact in the field.
"Bertozzi took click chemistry to a new level," according to the announcement. "To map important but elusive biomolecules on the surface of cells — glycans — she developed click reactions that work inside living organisms. Her bioorthogonal reactions take place without disrupting the normal chemistry of the cell.
"These reactions are now used globally to explore cells and track biological processes. Using bioorthogonal reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals, which are now being tested in clinical trials."
The announcement also described Meldal and Sharpless as having "laid the foundation for a functional form of chemistry — click chemistry — in which molecular building blocks snap together quickly and efficiently."
