Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 goes to Frances H Arnold, George P Smith and Sir Gregory P Winter

Stockholm, Oct 3: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the year 2018 has been announced. Frances H. Arnold won one half of the prize for his work in the field of directed evolution of enzymes while George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter won the other half of the coveted prize for their work in area of the phage display.

"The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the #NobelPrize in Chemistry 2018 with one half to Frances H. Arnold and the other half jointly to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter," said The Nobel Prize twitter handle.

Frances Arnold performed the first "directed evolution" of enzymes, which are proteins that catalyse chemical reactions. Enzymes produced through directed evolution are used to manufacture everything from biofuels to pharmaceuticals.

George Smith developed a method called phage display, where a bacteriophage - a virus that infects bacteria - can be used to evolve new proteins.

Sir Gregory Winter used phage display to produce new pharmaceuticals. Today phage display has produced antibodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer.

On Tuesday (October 2), the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics 2018 to Arthur Ashkin, Gerard Mourou and Donna Strickland. These scientists were selected for their groundbreaking inventions in the field of laser physics.

The Nobel Prize is a set of six annual international awards bestowed in several categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in recognition of academic, cultural, or scientific advances.