In News
- Recently, the Nobel Prize in chemistry for 2022 was awarded to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless.
- The three have been awarded for their work in ‘click chemistry’.
Click Chemistry
- Click chemistry is utilized in the development of pharmaceuticals, for mapping DNA and creating materials that are more fit for purpose.
- The term “click chemistry” is used to describe reactions that are fast, high-yielding and clean, meaning that they do not produce a lot of unwanted side-products.
Significance
- It helps to develop “bioorthogonal” reactions that operate safely inside living organisms without disrupting their biochemistry. Using bioorthogonal reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals.
- The breakthrough allowed scientists to track the movement of biomolecules in cells and so tease apart the complex workings of life.
- Replicating reactions that involve bonds between carbon atoms is expensive and often leads to side reactions and loss of material.
- In click chemistry, instead of trying to make carbon atoms react with each other, it focuses on using smaller molecules that already have a complete carbon frame.
Source:TH
