Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded for Chirality Research
Chemistry Nobel awarded for solving mystery of life’s asymmetry
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japan's Kenso Soai for their work solving a fundamental mystery of molecular biology: why life uses only one version of chiral molecules.
Chiral molecules exist as two mirror-image versions with different properties. All living organisms on Earth use only one version of these molecules—such as amino acids that form proteins—but scientists long struggled to explain why.
Kagan and Soai developed methods to design chemical reactions that produce predominantly the desired molecular version. This breakthrough has significant applications in pharmaceutical development, where producing the correct molecular form can mean the difference between an effective drug and an inactive compound. Their work has advanced the field of organic chemistry and improved drug manufacturing processes worldwide.
