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STOCKHOLM / LONDON (Reuters) – Two Americans and a Briton won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Wednesday for harnessing the power of evolution to produce new proteins used in green detergents, biofuels and anti-cancer drugs .
Photos of the 2018 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry: Frances H. Arnold from the United States, George P. Smith from the United States and Gregory P. Winter from Great Britain are screened at the announcement at Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm, Sweden, 3 October 2018. Jonas Ekstromer / TT Press Agency / via REUTERS
Among the fruits of this work is the world's best-selling prescription drug – AbbVie's Humira antibody injection for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
Dr. Frances Arnold from the California Institute of Technology, Dr. George Smith from the University of Missouri, and the MRC Molecular Biology Laboratory from Gregory Winter, UK received the Pioneering Science Award for Enzymes and Antibodies.
Arnold, the only fifth woman to win a Nobel Prize in chemistry, received half the prize of 9 million Swedish krona ($ 1 million), while her compatriots Smith and Winter shared the other half.
"The winners of this year's Nobel Prize for Chemistry were inspired by the power of evolution and used the same principles – genetic change and selection – to develop proteins that solve the chemical problems of humanity. "said the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Arnold is the second woman to win a Nobel Prize this year after Canada's Donna Strickland shared the physics prize on Tuesday.
His research on enzymes – proteins that catalyze chemical reactions – laid the foundation for the development of better chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
Smith developed a method using a virus that infects bacteria to produce new proteins, while Winter used the same phage display technique for the directed evolution of antibodies, in order to produce more effective drugs. .
Humira, or adalimumab, was the first drug based on Winter's work to obtain regulatory approval in 2002.
The awards for achievements in the fields of science, literature and peace were created and funded in accordance with the will of the Swedish dynamite inventor and Alfred Nobel businessman and are awarded since 1901.
For the first time in decades, the Nobel Prize list did not award a literary prize after an argument within the Swedish Academy following a rape scandal involving the husband's death. A member of the board of directors, who could not choose a winner.
The science and peace awards are selected by other organizations. Chemistry is this year's third Nobel laureate following the announcement of the Medicine and Physics award winners earlier this week.
Nobel Prize Graphic tmsnrt.rs/2y6ATVW
Other reports by Niklas Pollard and Simon Johnson; additional reports by Anna Ringstrom and Helena Soderpalm; Edited by Richard Balmforth
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