Arnold, Smith and Winter Receive 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

© AP Photo / Fernando Vergara, FILENobel Prize medal
Nobel Prize medal - Sputnik International
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According to a member of the committee, this year the Noble Prize “awards a revolution based on evolution,” going to scholars who “applied the principles of Darwin in the test tube.”

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Frances H. Arnold (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA), George P. Smith (University of Missouri, Columbia, USA) and Sir Gregory P. Winter (MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge).

Arnold was awarded the prize "for the directed evolution of enzymes," while Smith and Winter — "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies."

In 1985 Smith developed a method called “phage display,” which allows using a virus that infects bacteria (bacteriophage) to evolve new proteins. Winter, in turn, used this method to produce new pharmaceuticals.

Phage display is used to create anti-bodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and also cure metastatic cancer.

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