French-Japanese duo win chemistry Nobel for ‘mirror image’ breakthrough

Scientists honoured for solving mystery of asymmetric ‘mirror image’ molecules that has helped in manufacture of pharmaceuticals.

Scientists Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai have won the ۲۰۲۶ Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving a longstanding riddle of asymmetric “mirror image” molecules, a discovery hugely important for pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said on Wednesday the pair – Kagan, ۹۵, from France; and Soai, ۷۶, from Japan – were honoured “for the discovery of nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”.

Their findings showed how chemical reactions can be driven to favour a single molecular mirror image, work that has been key for chemists who design reactions for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.

Many of the molecules essential to life exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, like left and right hands. Yet living organisms almost exclusively use only one version, a phenomenon known as “homochirality” – from the Greek word for hand – that has puzzled chemists for more than a century.

“The left-handed version of the drug can have one effect, and the right-handed version can have another effect, and then we need methods for selectively preparing them,” said Peter Somfai, a member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

“In developing such methods, the findings of this year’s laureates are important. They provided powerful tools for that,” he said.

Heiner Linke, chair of the committee, said the two scientists provided “a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously”, calling the chemical reactions they developed “spectacular”.

‘Most exciting day’

Soai, speaking by phone to the Nobel Prize news conference, said he had been out shopping when he received the news.

“This is the most exciting day in my life, I am very glad to share this prize with Professor Henri Kagan,” he added.

Last year’s chemistry award went to scientists Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and Omar Yaghi for the development of so-called metal-organic frameworks, molecular constructions that can help tackle challenges such as climate change and lack of freshwater.

The chemistry Nobel is always the third prize to be awarded during Nobel week, following those for medicine and physics.

The literature laureate will be revealed on Thursday, while the keenly anticipated peace prize is due on Friday.

Established in the will of Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes for achievements in science, literature and peace have been awarded since ۱۹۰۱, with a few interruptions mostly due to the world wars.

Nobel, a chemist by trade, amassed huge wealth in the ۱۹th century from inventions primarily tied to warfare, most notably dynamite. The economics prize is a later addition funded by the Swedish central bank.