Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Kagan and Soai for their work in clarifying the asymmetry of organic molecules

Some molecules, like amino acids, are in two variants, which are speculative images of each other. However, living organisms have only one of these spectral images. The origin of this chemical asymmetry was for a long time a mystery to chemists, until Kagan and Soai discovered the solution to this enigma.

Kagan took his first decisive step in 1986, when he discovered a new way of manipulating chemical reactions that allowed him to create more than one of the speculative images that had hitherto been thought possible.

Soai took the next step, describing in 1995 how a fundamental publication designed the first chemical reaction with the potential to be homociral. In 2003, he finally did it. He presented a reaction in which only one of the two possible spectral images emerged.

Thanks to Kagan and Soai, we know how homocracy can be created, and their findings have been decisive for chemists who design reactions to make pharmaceuticals.