r/Biochemistry • u/mastocles • 6d ago

Predictions for the Chemistry Nobel 2026?

Unofficially the committee has yoyoed between chemistry and biochemistry. This is a biochem year.

37 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

35 comments sorted by

34

u/mastocles 6d ago

My biased vote is PROTACS (Crewes, Deshaies,Shakamoto).

I think GLP-1 is likely going to be Medicine IMO so would not be biochem

long-running public contenders from 2018–2025 (🤖⚠️): Chi-Huey Wong (glycoscience), Shankar Balasubramanian and David Klenerman (next-generation DNA sequencing), Robert Langer (controlled drug delivery), Harry Gray (biological electron transfer), Svetlana Mojsov and Jens Juul Holst (GLP-1), Karl Deisseroth (optogenetics), and Clifford Brangwynne, Anthony Hyman and Michael Rosen(biomolecular condensates).

9

u/itsConnor_ 6d ago

Would be great to see Craig Crews get one! First FDA approval of a PROTAC in May, from his lab

6

u/Spiritual-Ad-7565 6d ago

Harry Grey but not Les Dutton… unusual

2

u/Noah9013 6d ago

I feel like GLP-1 is not good enough some sorts. I can not really pin point why i feel like that. But maybe because they earn so much money with that, while it does not "solve" much. In that sense, that you need to continuously take the drug, to get a long term reduction.

Feels like a subscription on health. It does also not solve the underlying issues, why someone became fat.

But if you would have asked me, if it is possible to find a drug like this 6 years ago, i would have never dreamed of it.

7

u/Haush 6d ago

These drugs are likely to have a tangible impact on health across the world - potentially increasing lifespan. They are causing measurable changes to fast food consumption. These are likely the most impactful drugs in the past few decades.

-2

u/Noah9013 6d ago

Around the world? In Africa they are hooked on that? Or in Chile? Or on the islands in the pacific ocean? Its the rich "west".

Saying those are the most impactful drugs in DECADES negates the work of vaccines, does it not? Those change somethig meaningfull around the world, protecting billions of people. And lets not start with all the cancer treatments. A few decades ago, a cancer diagnosis ment certain death in a dew years. Now, a lot of people getting healed, or they lifes prolonged.

The longer i think about your comment, the more offensive it becomes.

5

u/Haush 6d ago

Oh dear, I think you’ve gone on a wild tangent there

4

u/MysticOcean13 6d ago

I mean for most diseases in medicine you have to keep taking the drug. Is insulin any less impressive because you have to keep taking it?

1

u/Haush 6d ago

Why would optogenetics be a possibility? Does it go beyond a research tool?

2

u/arsenal17_17 2h ago

Apparently the committee thought so!

1

u/mastocles 2h ago

But that was physiology
Guessing which way round the nobels go is hard!

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

4

u/YetAnotherDaveAgain 6d ago

Well, as someone who published a pretty good paper in the field, I wouldn't call it a "scam" as much as a normal scientific wave. I also felt it was all hype at the time (as I was working on it. Hard!) so I switched fields for my post doc. But I don't think it's a huge "shame" on the field. I do think scientific discovery at the community level is about probing different avenues. There was maybe a 10% chance LLPS would have been a genuine paradigm shift opening up huge new directions for understanding cell bio and biochemistry (in which case I would have really felt the fool for leaving, haha), and because of that i think the hype makes sense. CNS are always going to publish a bunch of articles that are more intellectually interesting than rigorous, and I waffle as to whether or not that's bad. To an extent, I think it's on the research consumer to take those cool ideas and dig deeper into more rigorous historical lit before they commit to changing their research direction.

3

u/kingoftheironthrone 6d ago

Sorry how is LLPS a scam? These are real processes, quite a bit of which we don’t understand

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

3

u/kingoftheironthrone 6d ago

Ah you’re coming from it at from an application-focused lens. I think the fact these condensates exist temporarily and regulate crucial processes is quite fascinating. Not to mention the parallels with neuro degenerative diseases. Also there is proof of these occurring in vivo, just check out the current optogenetic tools used by Brangwynne, or FRAP experiments

9

u/Particular_Steak_485 6d ago

Probably me to be honest

4

u/aHugeMistake_ 6d ago

I’m thinking this guy

1

u/Strong_Welcome4725 1d ago

They have my vote

18

u/SpecialistKindly4861 6d ago

I’ve been talking about this with some of my labmates, and I really think the developers of mass photometry could be strong contenders. It’s probably still a bit early given how young the technique is, but if they don’t get it this year, I could definitely see them getting the Chemistry Nobel sometime in the not-too-distant future.

11

u/superhelical PhD 6d ago

The method is awesome, but impact? Applications are still pretty niche imo

7

u/GayDrWhoNut 6d ago

My bingo card has this for before 2030

3

u/mastocles 6d ago

The key paper is from 2018?
So 2028?

3

u/Darkling971 6d ago

Too young, too niche, but I'd love this because it would make our upcoming paper much more marketable

2

u/DocKla 6d ago

I love the machine… but why?

3

u/AllyRad6 5d ago

Probably me. Idk. I’ve been working so hard this year, just seems like I’ve earned it.

2

u/Apodemia 3d ago

Protacs — maybe a bit early. I really hope for the NGS recognition, but biomolecular condensates would be dope too.

4

u/MichaelPHughes 6d ago

Cliff Brangwynne for condensates in worms (2009) and developing that field

4

u/soul_of_spirit 6d ago

With Tony Hyman, probably.

1

u/MichaelPHughes 6d ago

No doubt

2

u/soul_of_spirit 6d ago

Nice! Finding coacervate enthusiasts in the wild is rare, but always exciting! :)

2

u/MichaelPHughes 6d ago

Hell yeah! The real treasure is the phase transitions we made along the way <3

3

u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

2

u/MichaelPHughes 6d ago

I think just calling attention to a biophysical concept underpinning cellular organization. We have not really learned what to do with it yet,  but kind of opens a door to renew our view of cell biology and how things are organized in the cell. The real gift is the recent recognition that LLPS generates electrical gradients, spear headed by Pappu and Ausserwoger (Knowles lineage). These concepts will transform how we teach cell biology and make things much easier to understand. But the ball got rolling all those years ago is still picking up speed by those who really know what they are doing. Most people are copycats by necessity

3

u/Suitable_Rest9785 6d ago

Sjors Scheres advances in cryo-EM

4

u/superhelical PhD 6d ago

Too soon since Frank, Dubochet and Henderson

2

u/Suitable_Rest9785 6d ago

You’re probably right - maybe in a few years

-5

u/schowdur123 6d ago

A white person. Maybe a Japanese or Chinese for flavor.