On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, two women received the prestigious Wolf Prize for Chemistry after 15 years.
The Americans Carolyn Bertozzi, of Stanford University and foreign member of the Accademia dei Lincei, and Bonnie Bassler, of Princeton University, who share the award with Benjamin Cravatt, of Scripps Research in California.
The last woman to win the same award was Ada Yonath in 2006-2007. The three researchers were awarded for important contributions in understanding cellular communication mechanisms.
PROFILES - American chemical biologist from Stanford University and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bertozzi is a foreign member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei and is known for developing innovative technologies that have opened new avenues for biological research and therapeutic development. It initiated the field of so-called biorgonal chemistry, thanks to which it has become possible to chemically modify the molecules within living systems without interfering with the processes already in place. Thanks to his studies, fundamental discoveries have been possible for the understanding of many mechanisms of interaction that exist between cells and which have quickly found many applications, the most recent for the study of Covid-19.
Bassler's work has identified a specific type of chemical signals exchanged by bacteria known as "quorum sensing" that allows them to "hide" and that could be used to improve current antimicrobial therapies. Bassler also collaborates with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and has received numerous awards including the L'Oreal-Unesco recognition in 2012.
Cravat is instead considered one of the inventors of the so-called chemical proteomics, a set of techniques that allows us to reveal what proteins do inside cells and identify new drug targets.
(Unioneonline / vl)
