Nobel laureate Meldal at METU: Click chemistry offers hope for medicine and the environment

Danish chemist Morten Meldal, who laid the foundation of click chemistry, which allows molecules to link quickly and efficiently, has come to Turkey for a series of events at Middle East Technical University (METU). Meldal won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries in bioorthogonal chemistry, which covers reactions that take place in living cells without disrupting natural processes.

Emphasis on education for students

Meldal said he was glad to meet many young talents at METU and was impressed by the university's research facilities and curriculum. Noting that most problems in science stem from failures and projects that do not work as designed, he said his own approach is to focus on the process rather than the distant target molecule, creating small successes along the way. He also said students are worried about their future because of the environmental crisis.

Bir toplumda, uzun vadede en yüksek getiriyi eğitim sağlar.

Morten Meldal

Click chemistry and new research

Likening click chemistry to Velcro more than to Lego, Meldal explained that two matching components stick only to each other and not to surrounding materials. He said this makes it possible to build molecules that perform several functions, like tiny molecular robots, and that because the reactions take place in water, the process is more environmentally friendly. He added that the method can be used to make more selective drugs that target specific diseases without affecting other cells in the body, and new materials capable of capturing sunlight.

Meldal, who is 72, said the Nobel Prize changed his life overnight and that he had not expected it; he realized the importance of the reaction about four years later, when citations of the original work began to rise. He said that in his work at the Center for Evolutionary Chemical Biology his team has developed a method to produce peptides entirely in water and is also working on new ways of targeted cancer therapy. Because the subject is new, he said he did not want to give details before publication.