For working with biomolecules

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded for the directed evolution of enzymes and for phage mapping of peptides and antibodies

Alexander Dubov, N+1

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Frances H. Arnold for the directed evolution of enzymes, as well as to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter for phage mapping of peptides and antibodies.

You can follow the live broadcast of the ceremony of the announcement of the laureates on the official website of the Nobel Prize. You can learn more about the merits of the scientists awarded this year in the official press release. The Nobel Committee.

With the directed evolution of enzymes, mutations are randomly introduced into the sequence of the gene encoding the synthesis of this protein, after which a protein with the desired properties is selected, for example, with increased activity. For the first time such a synthesis was carried out by Frances Arnold. Now, with the help of it, it is possible to obtain a large number of different enzymes, which are now used both in biofuels and in the production of medicines.

Phage display (or phage display) – a laboratory method for studying the interactions of proteins with other proteins, peptide sequences and DNA, which is based on the use of bacteriophages to correlate proteins and genetic information encoding them. George Smith first described this method in 1985, showing that a change in one of the genes of a bacteriophage – a virus that infects a bacterium – is "displayed" in the structure of proteins on the virus envelope. Later, Gregory Winter demonstrated that such a method can be used to produce new drugs, for example, antibodies that can neutralize toxic substances, resist autoimmune diseases and cancer.

Half of the prize will go to Frances Arnold, the other half will be equally divided between George Smith and Gregory Winter. "These researchers managed – with various contributions – to propose new methods of combinatorial chemistry and biology for the production of biocatalysts, enzymes and antibodies with new properties. Their work was started somewhere in the 1980s, and they formed the basis of methods for obtaining a large number of various artificial enzymes, as well as enzymes and antibodies with altered properties. This prize is in chemistry, but it certainly has extensive biotechnological and medical applications, for example, for the treatment of oncological and autoimmune diseases. These proposals will revolutionize the face of therapeutic drugs for the next decade. Fortunately, and in In Russia, these works were also carried out at a fairly high level," Alexander Gabibov, acting director of the Shemyakin and Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told N+1.

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