GoKawiilKagan and Soai win 2026 Nobel Chemistry Prize for asymmetric synthesis work
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri B. Kagan of Université Paris-Sud and Kenso Soai of Tokyo University of Science. The prize recognises their discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis, work that explains how chemical reactions can favour one mirror-image molecule over another.
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The findings address a long-standing puzzle about how life's chemistry came to favour single mirror-image forms of molecules such as amino acids. According to Nobel committee chair Heiner Linke, the techniques developed by the laureates offer a practical route to producing only the desired mirror-image molecule, which could matter for fields like pharmaceutical development where only one form of a molecule is biologically active.
- Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai share the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- Their work explains non-linear effects and autocatalysis that can drive chemical reactions toward producing a single mirror-image molecule.
- The discovery addresses a century-old question about the origins of chemical homochirality in living organisms.
Source: nobelprize.org, 2026-10-07
Published there as: “Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai”
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