2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Awarded for Discoveries in Homochirality

The 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for the discovery of non-linear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis. Henri B. Kagan is associated with Université Paris-Sud, France, and Kenso Soai with Tokyo University of Science, Japan.

Many molecules, including amino acids, exist in two forms that are mirror images of each other, much like a left and a right hand. Living organisms, however, use only one of the two. This property is called homochirality, and for more than a century, chemists could not explain how it arose: in the laboratory, reactions that form such molecules normally produce both mirror images in equal amounts. In 1986, Professor Kagan discovered that a reaction can produce a much greater excess of one mirror image than had been thought possible. Professor Soai then designed a reaction in which the product speeds up its own formation, so that a tiny imbalance between the two forms grows larger and larger. In 2003, he presented a reaction that formed only one of the two mirror images, something that, apart from life itself, no one had achieved before.

"Henri 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," said Heiner Linke, Chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry.

Their discoveries show how homochirality can emerge, and they have been decisive for chemists who design reactions to make pharmaceuticals, where often only one mirror image of a molecule has the desired effect.

MDPI is pleased to have published a review co-authored by Professor Soai, one of this year's laureates, in the journal Symmetry in 2019. The review describes how asymmetric autocatalysis can amplify an extremely small excess of one mirror image to almost complete homochirality, and what this means for understanding the origins of homochirality in organic compounds.

Our heartfelt congratulations go to Professor Soai and Professor Kagan on this remarkable achievement!

Review co-authored by Kenso Soai and published with MDPI

Role of Asymmetric Autocatalysis in the Elucidation of Origins of Homochirality of Organic Compounds
Authors: Kenso Soai, Tsuneomi Kawasaki, and Arimasa Matsumoto
Symmetry 2019, 11, 694.

For more information, read the Nobel Committee's press release.