The 2022 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry will deliver a lecture titled “Everything is Chemistry”. We invite all members of our academic community to attend!

The lecture will take place on October 21 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Janusz Piekarczyk Auditorium at the WUM Didactic Center, located at 2a ks. Trojdena St.

The lecture will be held in English.

Admission to the event is free for all members of our academic community, but advance registration is required. 

Please use the QR code below to register: 

About the Nobel Laureate
 

Morten Meldal is a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen and at the Center for Evolutionary Chemical Biology (CECB), a renowned research unit within the department, where he has served as director since 2023.

He was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, jointly with Carolyn R. Bertozzi and K. Barry Sharpless, for the development of “click chemistry” and bioorthogonal chemistry. Click chemistry allows for chemical reactions in which molecules snap together like building blocks. While Barry Sharpless coined the term in 2000, Morten Meldal discovered the core reaction independently.

What was the breakthrough that won Meldal the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry?

A prime example of “click” chemistry is the copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition reaction (CuAAC). It acts like a chemical latch that precisely and permanently joins two independent molecules. Traditional cycloaddition (without a catalyst) require extremely high temperatures and yield an impure mixture of isomers.

Morten Meldal and Barry Sharpless’s breakthrough was the introduction of copper ions as a catalyst, completely transforming the reaction. Thanks to copper, the process occurs instantaneously at room temperature in an aqueous medium, producing exclusively the desired 1,4-isomer without hazardous byproducts.

A breakthrough that revolutionized modern medicine and pharmacology

The exceptional selectivity and biocompatibility of click chemistry have made it one of the most vital tools in modern medicine and drug development. Current applications include:

• Targeted cancer therapies (antibody-drug conjugates): Click chemistry enables the stable attachment of potent cancer-killing agents directly to antibodies that selectively bind to tumor cells. The drug circulates harmlessly through the bloodstream and releases only inside the tumor.
   
• In vivo diagnostic imaging: Modified sugars containing an azide group can be introduced into cells and incorporated into the outer surface of tumor cells. When a complementary fluorescent probe or radioactive isotope bearing an alkyne group is injected, it “clicks” onto the marker, allowing clinicians to pinpoint tumor locations with high-resolution imaging (such as PET scans).
   
• Synthesis of novel therapeutics: Rather than building complex pharmaceutical compounds from scratch, researchers assemble extensive modular libraries of small building blocks. By clicking these fragments together en masse, scientists can screen thousands of candidates rapidly to discover new antibiotics or antivirals.
   
• Tissue engineering and biomaterials: Click chemistry facilitates the synthesis of advanced hydrogels and biocompatible cellular scaffolds, accelerating tissue regeneration and wound healing.