Collection 

Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Frances H. Arnold “for the directed evolution of enzymes” and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and Gregory P. Winter “for the phage display of peptides and antibodies”. Together their pioneering work harnesses the processes of evolution for the generation of novel biological compounds. These tools have transformed the production of pharmaceuticals such as monoclonal antibodies and renewable fuels.

This Collection presents research, review, news and comment articles from Nature Research to celebrate the award. The collection content is editorially independent and the sole responsibility of Springer Nature.

Selected  content is made freely available for 6 months (until May 2019), thanks to the financial support of Bicycle Therapeutics and Novozymes. The sponsors retain sole responsibility for the following messages.

Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a unique class of chemically synthesised medicines based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide (Bicycle®) product platform to address therapeutic needs unreachable with existing treatment modalities. Bicycle’s internal focus is in oncology, where the company is developing targeted cytotoxics (Bicycle Toxin Conjugates®), targeted innate immune activators and T-cell modulators for cancers of high unmet medical need. Bicycles’ small size and exquisite targeting deliver rapid tumour penetration and retention while clearance rates and routes of elimination can be tuned to minimise exposure of healthy tissue and bystander toxicities. The company’s lead program, BT1718, is being evaluated in a Phase I/IIa trial in collaboration with Cancer Research UK. The company’s unique intellectual property is based on the work initiated at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, U.K., by the scientific founders of the company, Sir Gregory Winter and Professor Christian Heinis. Bicycle has its headquarters in Cambridge, U.K., with many key functions and members of its leadership team located in the biotech hub of Boston, Mass. For more information, visit www.bicycletherapeutics.com or follow us on Twitter at @Bicycle_tx.

Novozymes is the world’s largest researcher, developer and manufacturer of enzymes. Together with customers, partners and the global community, we improve industrial performance while preserving the planet’s resources and helping to build better lives.

As noted by the Nobel Committee when awarding the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Dr. Frances H. Arnold’s work in the field of directed evolution of enzymes brings great benefit to humankind.

Enzymes are nature’s own catalysts and Novozymes applies them across more than 40 different industries. Here they allow the production of more from less – less energy, less water, less chemicals.

Dr. Arnold’s work helped accelerate our innovation to discover new biological solutions. Building on Dr. Arnold’s research, directed evolution helps us discover better enzymes for developing new, biology-driven industrial processes, just like nature would – but much faster.

Directed evolution helped us to discover solutions to combat acrylamide in food, enable low-lactose yoghurt and help garments last longer, not to mention enabling washing at lower temperatures. Last year alone, our solutions helped save the world 76 million tons of CO2.

We are happy to collaborate with Nature to make Dr. Arnold’s work freely available to everyone.