2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has gone to Benjamin List of the Max Planck Institute for Kohlenforschung and David W. C. MacMillan of Princeton University for the discovery of asymmetric organocatalysis. This method uses small organic molecules as catalysts instead of traditional enzyme or metal catalysts. These molecules are able to catalyze reactions to selectively form one enantiomer of a particular compound—meaning one version of two possible mirror-image molecules. Asymmetric organocatalysis is a widely used technique and especially important to the drug discovery process. Biologically active molecules are often chiral, and organocatalysts provide a way to make candidate drug compounds quickly and efficiently. Using small organic molecules as catalysts is akin to mimicking enzymes , says David Nicewicz , an organocatalytic chemist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who worked with MacMillan as a postdoctoral researcher over a decade ago. In this way, Nicewicz says, the