What is Click Chemistry-- for which this year's Nobel Prize has been awarded

New Delhi: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless “for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”. For the uninitiated, what exactly is Click Chemistry?

Scientifically speaking, Click Chemistry is not a single specific reaction, but describes a way of generating products that follow examples in nature, which also generates substances by joining small modular units. Simply put, Click Chemistry is about the linking together of molecules like those in living cells

Used in the development of pharmaceuticals, the researchers have used bioorthogonal reactions to improve cancer medicines paving the way for significant research and development and possible later breakthroughs in cancer research and ways to increase chances of recovery in terminally-ill patients.

The term ‘click chemistry’ was coined by K. Barry Sharpless in 1998, and was first fully described by Sharpless, Hartmuth Kolb, and M.G. Finn of The Scripps Research Institute in 2001. Sharpless happens to be one of the scientists who have won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, this year. The prestigious prize is the second Nobel for the 81-year-old scientist, who won his maiden Nobel in 2001.

Click reactions, are those that occur in one pot, are not disturbed by water, generate minimal and inoffensive byproducts, and are characterised by a high thermodynamic driving force that drives it quickly and irreversibly to high yield of a single reaction product.

It is also used to explore the smallest of cells and track biological processes.

In its simplest definition, Click Chemistry is a form of simple and reliable chemistry, where reactions occur rapidly and unwanted by-products are avoided.

Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.