The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Henri B Kagan of Paris-Sud University in France and Kensō Soai of Tokyo University of Science in Japan. The two researchers will share equally in a prize valued at 12 million Swedish kronor, approximately £900,000.
The scientists received the recognition for their work on nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis, specifically their discoveries related to how chemical reactions can produce an overwhelming excess of one of two mirror-image molecular forms. Many molecules, including amino acids that form the basis of proteins, exist in two forms that contain identical atoms but are mirror images of each other—a property known as chirality.
A fundamental puzzle in chemistry has been that while life’s chemistry is remarkably homochiral, or same-handed, standard laboratory chemical reactions typically produce equal quantities of both mirror-image forms. This distinction matters considerably in pharmaceutical development, as the two forms of a chiral molecule can interact with the body in substantially different ways, potentially leading to varying drug effects or reduced efficacy. The drug thalidomide illustrates the consequences of this difference, having caused birth defects in thousands of children during the early 1960s when their mothers took the medication during pregnancy.
Kagan’s breakthrough came in 1986 when he demonstrated that a relatively small imbalance between left- and right-handed forms of a catalyst could create a greater excess of one mirror-image product. Soai subsequently advanced this work by developing a reaction in which the produced molecules themselves acted as catalysts for creating more of themselves—a process termed autocatalysis. In 2003, Soai demonstrated a reaction that produced almost exclusively one mirror-image form, reproducing the molecular one-handedness observed in living organisms for the first time in a laboratory setting.
Their combined discoveries have fundamentally altered understanding of how molecular chirality is created, amplified, and transmitted. These insights have become integral to industrial catalyst development across multiple sectors, allowing manufacturers to steer chemical reactions toward producing specific mirror-image molecular forms with greater precision and efficiency.
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