Kagan and Soai win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving homochirality mystery
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Why in news
Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the mystery of homochirality and designing reactions to produce specific mirror images of molecules.
Background
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Henri B. Kagan (Université Paris-Sud) and Kenso Soai (Tokyo University of Science). They solved the mystery of how nature exclusively produces one version of a molecule (homochirality) rather than a 50-50 mix of mirror images.
Facts for Prelims
- S&TChirality: Property of molecules having both right and left-handed forms, like mirror images.
- S&THomochirality: The selective production of one specific mirror image of a molecule over the other.
- FactHenri B. Kagan first discovered a new way of manipulating chemical reactions in 1986.
- FactKenso Soai published a paper in Nature in 1995 and succeeded in 2003 regarding chirality.
For Mains
Q. Discuss the significance of homochirality in pharmaceutical chemistry and its implications for the development of safe and effective drugs.
Dimensions to cover in your answer
- Pharmacological safety: Risk of adverse effects from non-target enantiomers in drug synthesis
- Synthetic chemistry: Advancement in designing reactions to produce specific molecular mirror images
- Biochemical basis: Understanding how life's asymmetry emerged spontaneously in nature
Keywords: Homochirality · Chirality · Enantiomers · Pharmaceutical Chemistry · Molecular Asymmetry
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