Directed Evolution–Bringing the Power of Evolution to the Laboratory:2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Frances H. Arnold, George P. Smith and Gregory P. Winter for harnessing the power of Darwinian evolution into the laboratory. As rightly mentioned by Claes Gustafsson, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry during the award announcement, ‘Our laureates have applied the principles of Charles Darwin in the test tubes, and used this approach to develop new types of chemicals for the greatest benefit of humankind’. This year’s Prize is dedicated to methods that create new molecules using the biosynthetic machinery of nature: directed evolution for making new enzymes and phage display for therapeutic antibodies.