The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 to Frances H. Arnold (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA), George P. Smith (University of Missouri, Columbia, USA), and Sir Gregory P. Winter (MRC’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge).
Arnold was awarded the prize "for the directed evolution of enzymes," while Smith and Winter — "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies."
Smith developed a method called phage display, which allows using a virus that infects bacteria (bacteriophage) in order to evolve new proteins. Winter, in turn, used that method to produce new pharmaceuticals.
More about: NobelPrize
