How click conquered chemistry
Katrina Krämer tells the story of how click and bioorthogonal chemistry came to win the 2022 Nobel prize
Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless shared the 2022 chemistry Nobel prize for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry. What made their achievement so special is the ability to see through the complexities of making molecules and prune down chemical concepts to what’s really important. The reactions they discovered are so simple yet effective that they can be carried out even in the chemical chaos that exists inside living systems.