Henri Kagan, Kenso Soai win chemistry Nobel for ‘mirror image’ breakthrough

Henri Kagan, Kenso Soai win Nobel chemistry prize for ‘mirror image’ workScientists 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 2026 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, 95, from France; and Soai, 76, from Japan – were honoured “for the discovery of nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis”.Recommended Stories list of 2 itemslist 1 of 2US support for Israel continues three years into the genocide in Gazalist 2 of 2Justina Shiroka Pula: Kosovo’s new president, elected during a crisisend of listTheir 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”.