American, Danish scientists take Nobel Prize in Chemistry

This year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded in equal parts to Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless for developing ways of “snapping molecules together.”

Hans Ellegren, secretary general of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, announced the winners on Wednesday at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

The work the scientists did independently in the area of a click chemistry — a term introduced by Sharpless — is “now used globally to explore cells and track biological processes,” according to the committee.

“Using bioorthogonal reactions, researchers have improved the targeting of cancer pharmaceuticals, which are now being tested