{"id":182452,"date":"2026-10-16T07:29:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T05:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=182452"},"modified":"2026-10-12T13:25:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T11:25:02","slug":"nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2026-they-made-chemistry-choose-a-mirror-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/nobel-prize-in-chemistry-2026-they-made-chemistry-choose-a-mirror-image\/","title":{"rendered":"Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026: They made chemistry choose a mirror image"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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Nobel Prize of Chemistry 2026: The Frenchman Henri B. Kagan and the Japanese Kenso Soai get the award zu gleichen Teilen.\u00a0\u00a9\u00a0Ill. Niklas Elmehed \/ Nobel Prize Outreach<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences<\/a>\u00a0has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 to Henri B. Kagan, Universit\u00e9 Paris-Sud, France and Kenso Soai, Tokyo University of Science, Japan \u201cfor the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis\u201d<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some molecules, such as amino acids, exist as two variants that are each other\u2019s mirror image. However, living organisms only contain one of these mirror images. How chemical asymmetry such as this could have emerged was long a mystery to chemists. Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 for discovering a solution to this puzzle.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Life\u2019s chemistry is what chemists call homochiral<\/em>, after the Greek words for \u201csame\u201d and \u201chand\u201d. Like hands, all amino acids exist as two mirrored variants, but only one of them is found in the proteins in your cells. The other is rarely found in nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a long time, chemists wondered how homochirality can emerge. When they began to experiment with chemical reactions that can form two mirrored molecules, they always obtained equal proportions of both in their test tubes. However, chemists strived to produce only one of these mirror images, because in the development of molecules that will interact with living beings \u2013 such as in pharmaceuticals \u2013 only one mirror image will have the desired effect.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u00a9Johan Jarnestad\/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 recognises discoveries that have enabled chemists to drive chemical reactions that lead to homochirality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cHenri Kagan and Kenso Soai have provided a solution to a chemical mystery that is over a century old: how homochirality can emerge spontaneously. The chemical reactions they have developed are spectacular,\u201d says Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Henri Kagan<\/strong> took the first decisive step in 1986, when he discovered a new way of manipulating chemical reactions. This allowed him to create a greater excess of one of the mirror images than had previously been thought possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenso Soai<\/strong> took the next step. In 1995, a key publica\u00adtion describes how he designed the first ever chemical reaction that had the potential to be homochiral. In 2003, he finally succeeded. He presented a reaction in which only one of the two possible mirror images was formed. Other than life itself, no one had previously achieved this feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai, we now know how homochirality can emerge. Their discoveries have been decisive for chemists who design reactions for the manufacture of pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Read more about this year\u2019s prize<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Popular science background: They solved chemistry\u2019s asymmetric mystery (pdf) <\/a>
Scientific background to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 (pdf)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Henri B. Kagan<\/strong>, born 1930 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France. PhD 1960 from Coll\u00e8ge de France, France. Professor Emeritus at the then Universit\u00e9 Paris-Sud, France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenso Soai<\/strong>, born 1950 in Hiroshima, Japan. PhD 1979 from University of Tokyo, Japan. Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University of Science, Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Prize amount<\/strong>: 12 million Swedish kronor to be shared equally between the laureates
Further information<\/strong>: www.kva.se<\/a> and www.nobelprize.org<\/a>
Expert<\/strong>: Peter Somfai, +46 70 693 63 77,\u00a0peter.somfai@chem.lu.se<\/a>, member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

About The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, is an independent organisation whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobel Prize\u00ae is a registered trademark of the Nobel Foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences\u00a0has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 to Henri B. Kagan, Universit\u00e9 Paris-Sud, France and Kenso Soai, Tokyo University of Science, Japan \u201cfor the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis\u201d. Some molecules, such as amino acids, exist as two variants that are each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":182468,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai are awarded in equal parts the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 for discovering how chemical asymmetry such as this could emerge","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[20576,6843,12276,13937,28706,14413,28707],"supplier":[28699,28700,14989,16307,28705],"class_list":["post-182452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-aminoacids","tag-biochemicals","tag-biopharmaceuticals","tag-geenchemistry","tag-nobelprize","tag-synthesis","tag-zertification","supplier-henri-boris-kagan","supplier-kenso-soai","supplier-royal-swedish-academy-of-sciences-the-nobel-prize","supplier-tokyo-university-of-science","supplier-universite-paris-saclay-sud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182477,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182452\/revisions\/182477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182452"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=182452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}