Stockholm: The 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to scientists Frances Arnold, George Smith and Gregory Winter for their research on enzymes, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday.
The first half of the prize was given to Arnold for ‘directed evolution of enzymes,’ while other half jointly to Smith and Winter for ‘phage display of peptides and antibodies,’ the Academy said.
Arnold, who works at California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, US, performed the first ‘directed evolution’ of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions.
Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals.
Smith of Missouri University, Columbia, US, developed a method called phage display, where a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – can be used to evolve new proteins.
Winter used phage display to produce new pharmaceuticals.
Today phage display has produced antibodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden. (UNI)
