Frances H Arnold, George P Smith and Gregory P Winter win Nobel prize in chemistry

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Three scientists have won the Nobel prize in chemistry for their work in harnessing evolution to produce new enzymes and antibodies.

British scientist Sir Gregory P Winter and Americans Frances H Arnold and George P Smith will share the 9m Swedish kronor (£770,000) prize, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

The winners’ work has led to the development of new fuels and pharmaceuticals by making use of nature’s evolutionary processes themselves, leading to medical and environmental advances.

Half of the prize goes to Arnold, from the California Institute of Technology, for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes – proteins that speed up chemical reactions. In a nutshell, Arnold introduced genetic mutations into enzymes, and then looked to see what effect the mutations had. She then selected the cases where a particular mutation proved useful – for example, allowing the enzyme to work in a solvent it would otherwise not work in. The process can then be repeated, with further genetic mutations introduced into these selected enzymes.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/03/frances-h-arnold-george-p-smith-and-gregory-p-winter-win-nobel-prize-in-chemistry

[redstatebluegirl]

1. Fabulous! The year of the woman!

A woman shared the prize in Physics and now Chemistry!!!! Plus the University of Missouri researcher shared the Chemistry award, someone other than Stanford, Harvard, Yale, MIT. They are noticing that great research happens all over the world, not just in the "great schools" and not just by old white guys! Congratulations Dr. Arnold, Dr.Smith and Dr. Winter!

[dalton99a]

2. +1. While Republicans try to put a serial rapist on the U.S. Supreme Court

[Nitram]

3. This great science and a powerful tool for good.

We are still at the stage of throwing darts at a dartboard to see what happens. Someday we will be able to plan exactly which mutations we hypothesize will be beneficial instead of randomly causing mutations and looking for something useful.