About:
- One half of the prize is awarded to Frances H. Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes” and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies”.
- Arnold is only the fifth woman to win a chemistry Nobel.
Directed evolution of enzymes:
- In 199, Frances H. Arnold conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions. Since then, she has refined the methods that are now routinely used to develop new catalysts.
- The uses of these enzymes include more environmentally friendly manufacturing of chemical substances, such as pharmaceuticals, and the production of renewable fuels for a greener transport sector.
Phage Display:
- The other half of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry is shared by George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter.
- In 1985, George Smith developed phage display method, where a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – can be used to evolve new proteins.
- Gregory Winter used phage display for the directed evolution of antibodies, with the aim of producing new pharmaceuticals. The first one based on this method, adalimumab, was approved in 2002 and is used for rheumatoid arthritis.
- Since then, phage display has produced anti-bodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer.
