The 2016 Wolf Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Professor Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA (pictured left), and Professor Stuart L. Schreiber, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA (pictured right).
The Wolf Prize has been awarded anually by the Wolf Foundation since 1978 and honors contributions to the sciences and to the arts “in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people”. It comes with $100,000 prize money, to be divided equally among the honorees. The award was presented during a ceremony at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Israel, on June 2, 2016.
Professor Nicolaou is honored “for advancing the field of chemical synthesis to the extremes of molecular complexity, linking structure and function and expanding our dominion over the interface of chemistry, biology, and medicine.” Professor Schreiber receives the award “for pioneering chemical insights into the logic of signal transduction and gene regulation that led to important new therapeutics, and for advancing chemical biology and medicine through the discovery of small-molecule probes.”
Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou studied chemistry at the University of London, UK, where he received his Ph.D. in 1972. After postdoctoral stays at Columbia University, New York, USA, and at Harvard University, he joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. In 1989, he was appointed as Professor of Chemistry both at the University of California, San Diego, USA, and at the Scripps Research Institute, San Diego. In 2013, Nicolaou joined Rice University as Harry C. and Olga K. Wiess Professor of Chemistry.
Among numerous other honors, Professor Nicolaou has received the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Organic Chemistry by the American Chemical Society in 1993, the Yamada-Koga Prize in 1999, the Nagoya Gold Medal of Organic Chemistry from Nagoya University, Japan, in 2001, the ACS A. C. Cope Award in 2005, and several honorary degrees. He serves on the advisory boards of numerous scientific journals, including Chemistry – An Asian Journal and ChemistryOpen.
Stuart L. Schreiber studied chemistry at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA, and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1981. He then joined the faculty at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1984 and Full Professor in 1986. He returned to Harvard University in 1988. Today, he is Morris Loeb Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University, as well as Director of Chemical Biology the Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Professor Schreiber has received the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award by the ACS in 1986, the Thieme-IUPAC Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry in 1992, the ACS Award for Creative Work in Synthetic Chemistry in 1994, the Tetrahedron Prize for Creativity in Organic Chemistry in 1997, and the Wheland Medal, by the University of Chicago in 2010, among many other honors.
Selected Publications by K. C. Nicolaou
- Practical Synthesis of p-and o-Amino- and Methoxyphenolic Anthraquinones,
K. C. Nicolaou, Min Lu, Pengxi Chen, Akshay A. Shah,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 12687–12691.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201507007 - Samarium Diiodide Mediated Reactions in Total Synthesis,
K. C. Nicolaou, Shelby P. Ellery, Jason S. Chen,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 7140–7165.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200902151 - Enantioselective Intramolecular Friedel−Crafts-Type α-Arylation of Aldehydes,
K. C. Nicolaou, Rüdiger Reingruber, David Sarlah, Stefan Bräse,
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 2086–2087.
DOI: 10.1021/ja809405c - The Continuing Saga of the Marine Polyether Biotoxins,
K. C. Nicolaou, Michael O. Frederick, Robert J. Aversa,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 7182–7225.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200801696 - The Chemistry and Biology of Epothilones – The Wheel Keeps Turning,
Karl-Heinz Altmann, Bernhard Pfeiffer, Stellios Arseniyadis, Benjamin A. Pratt, K. C. Nicolaou,
ChemMedChem 2007, 2, 396–423.
DOI: 10.1002/cmdc.200600206 - Total Synthesis of Platensimycin,
K. C. Nicolaou, Ang Li, David J. Edmonds,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 7086–7090.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200603892 - Cascade Reactions in Total Synthesis,
K. C. Nicolaou, David J. Edmonds, Paul G. Bulger,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2006, 45, 7134–7186.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200601872
Selected Publications by S. L. Schreiber
- A genetic basis for the variation in the vulnerability of cancer to DNA damage,
Brian D. Yard, Drew J. Adams, Eui Kyu Chie, Pablo Tamayo, Jessica S. Battaglia, Priyanka Gopal, Kevin Rogacki, Bradley E. Pearson, James Phillips, Daniel P. Raymond, Nathan A. Pennell, Francisco Almeida, Jaime H. Cheah, Paul A. Clemons, Alykhan Shamji, Craig D. Peacock, Stuart L. Schreiber, Peter S. Hammerman, Mohamed E. Abazeed,
Nat. Commun. 2016, 7, 11428.
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11428 - Selective killing of cancer cells by a small molecule targeting the stress response to ROS,
Lakshmi Raj, Takao Ide, Aditi U. Gurkar, Michael Foley, Monica Schenone, Xiaoyu Li, Nicola J. Tolliday, Todd R. Golub, Steven A. Carr, Alykhan F. Shamji, Andrew M. Stern, Anna Mandinova, Stuart L. Schreiber, Sam W. Lee,
Nature 2011, 475, 231–234.
DOI: 10.1038/nature10167 - Copper-Mediated Amidation of Heterocyclic and Aromatic C−H Bonds,
Qiu Wang, Stuart L. Schreiber,
Org. Lett. 2009, 11, 5178–5180.
DOI: 10.1021/ol902079g - A small molecule that directs differentiation of human ESCs into the pancreatic lineage,
Shuibing Chen, Malgorzata Borowiak, Julia L Fox, René Maehr, Kenji Osafune, Lance Davidow, Kelvin Lam, Lee F Peng, Stuart L Schreiber, Lee L Rubin, Douglas Melton,
Nat. Chem. Biol. 2009, 5, 258–265.
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.154 - Towards the Optimal Screening Collection: A Synthesis Strategy,
Thomas E. Nielsen, Stuart L. Schreiber,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 48–56.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200703073 - The M2 splice isoform of pyruvate kinase is important for cancer metabolism and tumour growth,
Heather R. Christofk, Matthew G. Vander Heiden, Marian H. Harris, Arvind Ramanathan, Robert E. Gerszten, Ru Wei, Mark D. Fleming, Stuart L. Schreiber, Lewis C. Cantley,
Nature 2008, 452, 230–233.
DOI: 10.1038/nature06734 - Small molecules enhance autophagy and reduce toxicity in Huntington’s disease models,
Sovan Sarkar, Ethan O Perlstein, Sara Imarisio, Sandra Pineau, Axelle Cordenier, Rebecca L Maglathlin, John A Webster, Timothy A Lewis, Cahir J O’Kane, Stuart L Schreiber, David C Rubinsztein,
Nat. Chem. Biol. 2007, 3, 331–338.
DOI: 10.1038/nchembio883
Also of Interest
- 2014 Wolf Prize in Chemistry,
ChemViews/Jonathan Faiz,
ChemViews Mag. 2014.
Professor Chi-Huey Wong, Academia Sinica and The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA, is this year’s winner - Author Profile: K. C. Nicolaou,
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 5576–5578.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200902685
