The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 has been awarded to Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith and Gregory P. Winter.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 with one half to Frances H. Arnold and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter.
Sir Gregory Winter, awarded the Nobel Prize 2018 in Chemistry, has used phage display to produce new pharmaceuticals. Today phage display has produced antibodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer.
George Smith developed a method known as phage display, where a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – can be used to evolve new proteins.
Frances Arnold, awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize, conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions. Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals.
