{"id":4948,"date":"2022-10-25T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=4948"},"modified":"2022-10-12T08:58:45","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T08:58:45","slug":"nobel-prize-how-click-chemistry-and-bioorthogonal-chemistry-are-transforming-the-pharmaceutical-and-material-industries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/nobel-prize-how-click-chemistry-and-bioorthogonal-chemistry-are-transforming-the-pharmaceutical-and-material-industries\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Prize: How click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry are transforming the pharmaceutical and material industries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Click chemistry joins molecules together by reacting an azide with a cyclooctyne.\n Boris Zhitkov\/Moment via Getty Images<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\nHeyang (Peter) Zhang<\/a>, University at Buffalo<\/a><\/em><\/span>\n\n

The 2022 Nobel Prize in chemistry<\/a> was awarded to scientists Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for their development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n

These techniques have been used in a number of sectors, including delivering treatments<\/a> that can kill cancer cells without perturbing healthy cells as well as sustainably and quickly producing large amounts of polymers to build materials. One click chemistry-based drug is currently undergoing phase 2 clinical trials<\/a>. Bertozzi is a scientific adviser of the company developing the drug.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

We asked chemistry Ph.D. candidate Heyang (Peter) Zhang<\/a> of the Lin Lab<\/a> at the University at Buffalo to talk about how these techniques figure in his own research and how they have transformed his field and other industries.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

1. How does click and bioorthogonal chemistry work?<\/h2>\n\n

Click chemistry<\/a>, as the name suggests, is a way of building molecules like snapping Lego blocks together. It takes two molecules to click, so researchers refer to each one as click partners. <\/p>\n\n

K. Barry Sharpless and Morten Meldal independently discovered that azide<\/a>, a high-energy molecule with three nitrogens bonded together, and alkyne<\/a>, a relatively inert and naturally rare molecule with two carbons triple-bonded together, are great click partners in the presence of a copper catalyst<\/a>. They found that the copper catalyst can bring the two pieces together in an optimal arrangement that snaps them together. Prior to this technique, researchers did not have a way to quickly and precisely make new molecules under accessible conditions, like using water as a solvent at room temperature.<\/p>\n\n

\n \"Diagram<\/a>\n
\n By combining an azide with a cyclooctyne, bioorthogonal chemistry allows researchers to join molecules quickly together without disturbing the rest of the cell.<\/span>\n Cliu89\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span>\n <\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n\n

Chemical biologists quickly realized that click reactions can be a fantastic way to probe living systems like cells because they produce little to no toxic byproducts and can happen quickly. However, the copper catalyst is itself toxic to living systems.<\/p>\n\n

Carolyn Bertozzi devised a workaround for this issue by removing the copper catalyst from the reaction<\/a>. She did this by placing the alkyne into a ring structure, which drives the reaction forward using the ring strain produced from molecules forced into a cyclical shape. These bioorthogonal reactions, or reactions that happen \u201cparallel\u201d to the chemical environment of the cell, can occur in cells without perturbing their normal chemistry.<\/p>\n\n

2. How do you use this chemistry in your work?<\/h2>\n\n

In an interview<\/a>, Carolyn Bertozzi stated that the next steps for bioorthogonal chemistry are to find new reactions and applications for it. Our lab\u2019s research focuses exactly on that. <\/p>\n\n

My colleagues and I apply this technique to track molecules we are interested in as they naturally behave in a cell. In a living cell, we were able to add a probe to a receptor<\/a> that plays a role in a number of cellular processes.<\/p>\n\n

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