mRNA vaccines, “bioorthogonal chemistry” and artificial skin are some of the discoveries that could win the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which will be awarded on Wednesday, AFP reports.

The winner or winners are due to be announced this afternoon by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which last year awarded the prize to German Benjamin List and David McMillan, a researcher with American and British citizenship, for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis.

Favorites for the Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded on Monday, which eventually went to Swedish paleogeneticist Svante Pjabo for his discoveries about the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution, Hungarian biochemist Katalin Kariko and American immunologist Drew Weissman, whose work underpinned the development of messenger RNA vaccines, are also favorites for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Analysts believe they can be celebrated alongside Canadian researcher Peter Callis, another expert on mRNA technology.

While many people may be hoping that mRNA vaccines will be rewarded this year because of the many lives saved during the COVID-19 pandemic, some analysts are less optimistic.

“The Nobel committee usually waits a long time before awarding the prize,” says Linus Brohult, science editor at Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

Brohult also notes that development of mRNA vaccines is ongoing and that they may be used in other areas of medicine, such as cancer prevention.

• On the same topic: How new is the mRNA technology that researchers say will truly revolutionize medicine?

“The mRNA vaccines could become even more massive in a few years, and then they (the Nobel committee) will want to include those who were part of the development,” says Brohult.

Artificial skin, the favorite for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022

David Pendlebury, head of research analysis at the Clarivate Institute for Scientific Information, an organization that closely monitors potential laureates in science, says Carolyn Bertozzi, a researcher from the United States, is another front-runner for this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Pendlebury explained to AFP that she “coined the term and helped develop what is now known as bioorthogonal chemistry,” which refers to chemical reactions that occur in living systems without interfering with biochemical processes.

Bertozzi could share the prize with American Steven J. Lippard, an expert on the role of metal ions in biology, which are used, for example, in the development of cancer treatments.

Brohult also believes that the American molecular biologist Bonnie Bassler, a specialist in intercellular communication, has a good chance of receiving the Nobel medal in chemistry this year.

Jenan Bao, an expert in the chemical engineering of synthetic leather at Stanford University, is also on this year’s list, Brohat said.

A Chinese-American researcher and her team have invented “electronic artificial skin” by developing the materials needed for stretchable circuits and flexible batteries.

An American researcher may receive a second Nobel Prize in 2022

This year, the Nobel Committee can recognize another field related to tissue engineering, thanks to the American researchers Kato Laurencin, Christa Anseth and Robert Langer.

The latter is known for developing technologies that allow drugs to be delivered directly to affected tissues without the need for needles or invasive procedures.

Another researcher believed to be in the running is American Barry Sharpless, who also has a rare chance of winning a second Nobel after being awarded in 2001. Excluding organizations, only 4 people have achieved this so far, the first being the famous French researcher Marie Curie.

Sharpless may win the Nobel again for his so-called “click chemistry,” a term he coined to describe the use of molecules that snap together easily.

The program of awarding the Nobel Prizes

The Japanese Susumu Kitagawa and Makoto Fujita, as well as the American researcher of Jordanian origin Omar Yagi, are also among the names that have been mentioned in recent years as winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

They are considered pioneers in the field of organometallic alloys, which allow storing large quantities of gases without the need for high pressure.

After Svante Pääbo won the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded on Tuesday to researchers Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger for their experiments with entangled photons and pioneering quantum information science.

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be awarded on Wednesday, followed by the Literature and Peace Prizes, which will be announced on Thursday and Friday, respectively. This year, the Nobel Peace Prize is even more anticipated because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

PHOTO article: Dreamstime.com.