NOBEL PRIZE: MEDICINE, PHYSICS, CHEMISTRY

 

IN  NEWS

Nobel prize winners has been announced under various categories. The announcement of the Nobel Medicine Prize opens this year’s amputated awards season, with no Literature Prize for the first time in 70 years because of a #MeToo scandal.

WINNERS OF THIS YEAR NOBEL PRIZE

FIELD

WINNERS

COUNTRY

RESEARCH ON

Physiology or Medicine

James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo

U.S. and Japan

Were awarded the Prize “for their discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation.”

Physics

Arthur Ashkin , Gérard Mourou and Donna Strickland

America( scientist), France( engineer) and Canada (professor)

In the field of laser physics.

Chemistry

Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter.

Dr. Arnold and Dr. Smith are American, while Dr. Winter is British.

For the directed evolution of enzymes AND for the phage display of peptides and antibodies

 

MEDICINE –THERAPHY OF INHIBITION

James P. Allison -studied a protein that functions as a brake on the immune system. He realised the potential of releasing the brake and unleashing our immune cells to attack tumours. He developed this concept into a new approach for treating patients.

Tasuku Honjo -discovered a protein on immune cells and revealed that it also operates as a brake, but with a different mechanism of action. Therapies based on his discovery proved to be strikingly effective in the fight against cancer

PHYSICS-LASER

Three scientists won the Nobel Physics Prize, including the first woman to receive the prestigious award in 55 years, for inventing optical lasers that have paved the way for advanced precision instruments used in corrective eye surgery.

Ashkin -was honoured for his invention of "optical tweezers" that grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells with their laser beam fingers. With this he was able to use the radiation pressure of light to move physical objects.

Mourou and Strickland- won for helping develop a method to generate ultra-short optical pulses, the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created by mankind.Their technique is now used in corrective eye surgery.

Mourou was also involved in building the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) project and what is believed to be one of the world's most powerful lasers, the Apollon, in developments that researchers hope will one day help deal with nuclear waste, treating tumours and clearing debris in space.

Laser pioneers win Physics Nobel

CHEMISTRY-ENZYMES

Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals. Antibodies evolved using a method called phage display can combat autoimmune diseases and in some cases cure metastatic cancer.

Frances H. Arnold-she conducted the first directed evolution of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions. Since then, she has refined the methods that are now routinely used to develop new catalysts.

George Smith -developed an elegant method known as phage display, where a bacteriophage — a virus that infects bacteria — can be used to evolve new proteins.

The 2018 Nobel Prize for Literature will be handed out at 2019's ceremony, alongside the award to next year's winner.