image: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor John Moses is CSHL's first chemistry professor. view more
Credit: CSHL, 2020
The Royal Society of Chemistry has awarded an international team of scientists the first-ever Organic Division Horizon Prize: the Robert Robinson Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. The prize was awarded to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry John E. Moses as a part of a collaborative effort with prestigious institutions around the world, including Nobel laureate K.B. Sharpless of Scripps Research Institute.
The prize recognizes the development of multidimensional click chemistry, a groundbreaking and innovative technology that creates new kinds of molecules. The reaction puts small chemical "modules" together to create larger molecules, similar to how Lego bricks "click" together to form a structure. This original work has multiple potential applications, including cutting-edge tools for advanced chemical biology, drug discovery and development, and the construction of next-generation materials.
At the news of receiving the prize, Moses said, "It felt like things had finally clicked into place."
The Royal Society of Chemistry's Horizon Prizes celebrate groundbreaking, contemporary chemical science at the cutting edge of research and innovation. The Royal Society of Chemistry is the oldest chemical society in the world, founded in 1841.
Bruce Stillman, president and chief executive officer of CSHL, says "John Moses' contributions to the development and application of click chemistry have been exceptional. I am pleased that he is integrating this type of flexible and efficient chemistry into the biological and medical research programs at CSHL. I congratulate him and the team for this well-deserved recognition."
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