Nobel prize for Chemistry winners used evolution to cure some of the world's worst problems

A screen displays portraits of Frances H Arnold of the United States, George P Smith of the United States and Gregory P Winter of Great Britain during the announcement of the winners of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemestry at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences on October 3, 2018 in Stockholm (Jonas EKSTROMER / TT News Agency / AFP)

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been given to three scientists who used evolution to solve some of the world's worst problems.

The three winners all harnessed the principles that power evolution – genetic change and selection – to create new chemical processes that help cure disease, create new materials and save lives.

"The power of evolution is revealed through the diversity of life," the committee wrote. "The 2018 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry have taken control of evolution and used it for purposes that bring the greatest benefit to humankind.

"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."

Evolution has meant that the world is full of a huge variety of different forms of life, because it has allowed organisms to respond to the chemical problems that surround them in their environment. The three scientists who won used those same processes to solve the problems facing humans.

Those include the promotion of a greener chemicals industry, the production of useful new materials, manufacturing sustainable biofuels as well as mitigating diseases and saving lives.

Half of the 9-million-kronor or roughly $1 million prize was designated for Frances Arnold of Caltech in Pasadena for work that has led to the development of new biofuels and pharmaceuticals.

The other half of the prize will be shared by George Smith of the University of Missouri and Gregory Winter of the MRC Laboratory in Cambridge. They were honored for "phage display of peptides and antibodies."

The first pharmaceutical based on Winter's work was approved for use in 2002 and is employed to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases, the academy said.

Reached by The Associated Press Wednesday, Smith credited others for the work that led to his breakthrough.

"Very few research breakthroughs are novel. Virtually all of them build on what went on before. It's happenstance. That was certainly the case with my work," he said. "Mine was an idea in a line of research that built very naturally on the lines of research that went before."

Smith said he learned of the prize in a pre-dawn phone call from Stockholm. "It's a standard joke that someone with a Swedish accent calls and says you won! But there was so much static on the line, I knew it wasn't any of my friends," he said.

The medicine prize was awarded Monday to American and Japanese researchers. Scientists from the United States, Canada and France shared the physics prize Tuesday.

On Tuesday, researchers from the United States, Canada and France were awarded the physics prize for advances in laser technologies.

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is to be announced Friday. No literature prize will be awarded this year. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, honoring the man who endowed the five Nobel Prizes, will be revealed on Oct. 8.