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Since 1901, when the first Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded, 177 people have won this honor. On Wednesday, Frances H. Arnold only became the fifth woman to receive this award.
Dr. Arnold, 62, an American professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, won the award for his work on the directed evolution of enzymes.
She shared this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry – worth almost one million dollars – with George P. Smith, 77, and Gregory P. Winter, 67 . Dr. Arnold received half the award, while Dr. Smith and Dr. Winter parted. .
Ms. Arnold has been rewarded for her work on the directed evolution of enzymes, proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In the early 1990s, she was the first to use the bioengineering method, which works in the same way as dog breeders, to bring out the desired traits, in order to bring out the desired traits.
Its enzymes have been used to make biofuels, drugs and laundry detergents. In many processes, they have replaced toxic chemicals.
[Tuesday[ontuesday[Mardi[OnTuesdaya woman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the third time.]
Dr. Smith has been honored for developing a method, called phage display, in which a virus infecting bacteria can be used to develop new proteins. Dr. Winter has been rewarded for his development of antibodies via phage display in order to fight autoimmune diseases and, in some cases, cure metastatic cancer.
"I think about what I do by copying the nature design process," Dr. Arnold said in an interview with NobelPrize.org. "All this beauty and complexity of the biological world comes from this simple and beautiful design algorithm."
In the 1980s, Dr. Arnold tried to reconstruct the enzymes, but because they were very complex molecules made from different amino acids that could be combined infinitely, she had trouble reshaping the genes of the enzymes to give them new properties.
In the 1990s, she gave up what she called "A somewhat arrogant approach" to try to create modified enzymes through its logic and knowledge, and to examine how nature does things. She examined the evolution.
"I realized that most people were interested in protein engineering and that failure was bound to fail," said Dr. Arnold. "For me, it's obvious that's how it should be done."
She tried to change an enzyme called subtilisin. She wanted it to accelerate the changes in an organic solvent. She therefore created random mutations in the genetic code of the enzyme and introduced the mutated genes into bacteria that then created different types of subtilisin.
Dr. Arnold selected the most successful type of subtilisin. Once she found the best variant of subtilisin, she continued to mutate it until she got the best version.
With this directed evolution, she could show the power to allow chance and directed selection instead of relying on human logic and understanding of how genes and enzymes are supposed to work. This was the first step towards the enzymatic mutation revolution.
When she started her new approach, "some people looked down," Dr. Arnold told the Foundation of National Medals in Science and Technology. "They might say," This is not science "or" The gentlemen do not do random mutagenesis. "I laughed until the bank, because it works.
Now, Ms. Arnold said, here are some of the questions she would like to answer: "How do you evolve innovation? How do you get a brand new chemical activity that you do not already know? How can I develop a brand new species of enzymes? "
Dr. Arnold was born on July 25, 1956 in Pittsburgh. In 1979, she received her undergraduate degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University. She obtained her graduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley in 1985.
She began teaching at Caltech in 1986. In 2013, she became director of the institution Bioengineering Center Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen.
Only eight Nobel Prizes have been awarded to women in physics or chemistry. It is also the first time that women receive a Nobel Prize in Chemistry and a Nobel Prize in Physics the same year.
When Dr. Arnold was woken up to receive the good news, she said that she was "holed up".
"I'm absolutely delighted," she said. "I can not wait to go home and tell my son."
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