2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for quicker and inexpensive routes to medicines

This prize for Chemistry was awarded jointly to Carolyn Bertozzi  (Stanford University, USA), Morten Meldal (University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Barry Sharpless ( Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA) for the development of “Click Chemistry”, a new method in which molecular building blocks click together quickly and for utilizing it in living organisms. This can help in more effective treatment of cancer.

Research chemists try to artificially make natural molecules for medicines, which is a time consuming and very expensive process. This discovery allows the chemists to follow simpler procedures and avoiding unwanted by-products, which had to be isolated. This involves an efficient chemical reaction for the development of pharmaceuticals and for mapping DNA. These reactions work inside living organisms without  disrupting the normal structure or functioning of the cell and are now used to explore cells and track complex biological processes.

2022  Nobel Prize in Physics for work with applications in Very Fast Quantum Computers

The  Physics Prize was awarded in equal parts to Alain Aspect (University of Paris), John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger (University of Vienna), for their pathfinding work in Information Science. They demonstrated that particles, such as photons, can be linked, with one another even when they are separated by large distances. This is a feature of the universe that even baffled Albert Einstein and connects matter and light in a complex way. Bits of such distant particles have a relationship that can  help encrypt and teleport information. Satellites now demonstrate this and it can be used in extremely fast computers and synthesis of superconducting compounds. It shows  that parts of the universe, even those at great distances, are connected. The Quantum Computers based on such photons can interact, no matter how distant.

2022 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Svante Pääbo of Sweden got the 2022 Nobel Award for his discoveries concerning the genomes of the groups of modern and extinct human species and their immediate ancestors (called hominins) and human evolution. He established the Leipzig, Germany-based, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in 1999, where he continues to work.. Modern DNA technology helps to investigate our ancient past with good precision. However, due to degradation of DNA during the past thousands of years and contamination from micro-organisms, it was doubted whether this analysis from extinct hominin forms was reliable. Svante Pääbo succeeded in devising new techniques for obtaining the genome sequence of our closest extinct relatives (the Neanderthal).

This has opened a new window to our evolutionary past, revealing an unexpected complexity in the evolution and an improved understanding of genetic features that make us uniquely human, appearing about 55-65 million years ago. Studies of human evolution relied on analyses of ancient bone remains and archeological artifacts. Genetic analysis was required to shed light on the relationship between us and our ancestors. However, the extraction and sequencing of very old DNA from an extinct species was required. Pääbo’s team tested a large number of  Neanderthal bone and tooth samples from different sites in Europe, Africa  and western Asia to estimate bio-molecular preservation. His work provides the routes to search for gene variants among present day humans and to study their association to the observable properties.

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