Chemistry Research Ushers A New Hope For Humanity

"The three scientists developed laboratory methods of controlling evolution and harnessing its power to engineer enzymes and bind proteins using same tools as nature, of genetic mutation and selection for the benefit of mankind. This is called ‘directed evolution’, a man-made procedure that compresses the evolution timescale by orders of magnitude down to a few years. The notion of ‘survival of the fittest’ in nature’s scheme of things is mimicked in the laboratory through directed evolution to create new useful entities."

"The three scientists used those same processes to solve problems facing humans. These include the promotion of a greener chemicals industry, the production of useful new materials, manufacturing sustainable biofuels as well as mitigating diseases and saving lives. "

- Aritra Mitra

In 2018, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith, and Gregory P. Winter for their pioneering work in developing laboratory methods for controlling evolution and harnessing its power to engineer enzymes and binding proteins for the benefit of mankind. Chemical engineer, Frances Arnold, at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is the second woman to win the prize in the past 50 years. Sir Greg Winter is from MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the U.K. and George P. Smith is from the University of Missouri, U.S.A. They all used variants of existing chemistry studies to find solutions to problems such as creating biofuel from sugars, as well as altering human antibodies to fight things such as rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.

Arnold carried out his pioneering work in the 1990s on ‘directed evolution’ of enzymes. She devised a method for inducing mutations in enzyme-producing bacteria and then screening and selecting the bacteria to speed up and direct enzyme evolution. These enzymes which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions are now used in applications from making biofuels to synthesising medical drugs.