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Henri Kagan, Kenso Soai Win Nobel Prize for Chemistry Breakthrough
(MENAFN) French scientist Henri B. Kagan and Japanese scientist Kenso Soai have been awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research that helped explain how the molecular asymmetry found throughout living systems can arise.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognized the two scientists “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.”
Their work focused on the long-standing scientific puzzle of homochirality, a characteristic of living organisms in which molecules consistently occur in one of two possible mirror-image forms.
Some molecules can take two structures that resemble mirror images of each other, similar to the relationship between a left and right hand. In biological systems, however, proteins use only one of the two possible forms of amino acids.
The researchers’ findings have also contributed to understanding an important issue in drug development because two mirror-image versions of the same molecule can produce different effects inside the human body.
“Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously. The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
Kagan achieved a major advance in 1986 when he discovered a method for controlling chemical reactions in a way that produced a significantly larger excess of one molecular mirror-image form than scientists had previously been able to achieve.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences recognized the two scientists “for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis.”
Their work focused on the long-standing scientific puzzle of homochirality, a characteristic of living organisms in which molecules consistently occur in one of two possible mirror-image forms.
Some molecules can take two structures that resemble mirror images of each other, similar to the relationship between a left and right hand. In biological systems, however, proteins use only one of the two possible forms of amino acids.
The researchers’ findings have also contributed to understanding an important issue in drug development because two mirror-image versions of the same molecule can produce different effects inside the human body.
“Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously. The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular,” said Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.
Kagan achieved a major advance in 1986 when he discovered a method for controlling chemical reactions in a way that produced a significantly larger excess of one molecular mirror-image form than scientists had previously been able to achieve.
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