In 2001, Dr. Sharpless and a few of his colleagues revealed a paper introducing one thing he referred to as click on chemistry, a brand new manner of approaching this type of molecular management when utilized to the creation of latest drug compounds. The strategy could be based mostly round one rule, he wrote: “All searches have to be restricted to molecules which are simple to make.” As a substitute of attempting to synthesize, or chemically create, molecules by forcing a tough natural bond, Dr. Sharpless, mentioned, focus as an alternative on bonds that kind quick and produce steady byproducts. If carried out in the precise manner, the more durable bonds will kind mechanically, clicking into place. Consider them “as items of nature,” Dr. Sharpless wrote.

“What’s distinctive about click on chemistry is that the 2 reagents, within the presence of lots of of hundreds of various kinds of molecules, they may solely search out one another and solely give one product,” mentioned Jiong Yang, a program director on the Nationwide Institute of Common Medical Science who oversees Dr. Sharpless’s work. “That’s the premise of all this technical improvement.”

This shift in method was quickly adopted by the invention of a response referred to as copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition, which put the idea into observe. Azides and alkynes are two sorts of molecules, and Dr. Meldal and Dr. Sharpless independently discovered that after they had been mixed, utilizing copper as a catalyst, the response was quick and environment friendly and the product was steady. Now often known as the “crown jewel of click on chemistry,” the invention was “like opening the floodgates,” mentioned Olof Ramström, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry in a briefing after the laureates had been introduced. “We had been utilizing it in every single place, to construct the whole lot.”

Molecules might now be mixed rapidly, effectively and with out a lot fuss, and the functions instantly prolonged “past chemists,” mentioned Angela Wilson, the president of the American Chemical Society. Materials science, pharmaceutical improvement, tissue regeneration, brightening brokers — “this simply opens up a world of potentialities when it comes to supplies and polymers,” Dr. Wilson mentioned. “It’s like placing Lego items collectively — you do it rather more simply and are in a position to construct greater molecules.”

Jon Lorsch, the director of the Nationwide Institute of Common Medical Science, additionally used the Lego analogy. “It permits you to assemble molecules in a reasonably outlined manner, such you could direct what’s hooked up to what simply.” Dr. Lorsch added, “Virtually something you take a look at today, you will discover an instance of the place this chemistry has been utilized.”