Two researchers who elucidated how living systems generate molecules that exist as only one of two possible mirror-image forms have been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced the decision in Stockholm on October 7, dividing the 12-million Swedish kronor (US$1.2 million) prize between Henri Kagan of the University of Paris-Sud in Orsay, France, and Kenso Soai of the University of Tokyo.
“I am very excited to receive the very nice news about the Nobel prize. This is one of the most exciting days in my life,” said Soai, speaking with the committee after the announcement. He revealed that he was out shopping near his home when he received the call.
The prize recognizes a solution to a chemical puzzle that has persisted for more than a century: how homochirality—the phenomenon where life’s building blocks adopt only one handedness—can arise spontaneously. While mirror-image molecules can theoretically exist in either form, biological systems are strictly one-handed; for instance, DNA is right-handed while amino acids are left-handed.
Kagan’s foundational work in the 1980s demonstrated methods for manipulating reactions so that a minuscule asymmetry in molecular handedness could be amplified. Decades later, in the 1990s, Soai showed that a single-handed molecule could act as a catalyst to produce additional products sharing its own chirality. Together, their research illustrated how natural reactions within organisms can overwhelmingly favor the production of a single type of mirror-image molecule.
“Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, in a statement. “The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular.”
These discoveries now serve as essential tools for chemists designing reactions to create pharmaceuticals, materials, and perfumes. Kagan’s recognition is also seen by many as correcting a historical oversight; the French chemist was narrowly excluded from the 2001 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for similar work on selective synthesis, a snub that prompted protests from France’s science minister at the time.
Does this actually help pharma companies produce better drugs, or is it just theoretical chemistry at this point?
Kagan finally gets his due after that 2001 snub. Good riddance to that oversight.
Wait, so one chiral molecule can just copy itself? That seems almost too elegant to be true.
I always wondered why we use only left-handed amino acids. This finally explains the origin clearly.