Nobel Prize for Evolution.

[Polymath257]

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was just announced and 'awards a revolution based on evolution' where they bring 'Darwin to the test tube'.

The goal here was to use directed evolution to produce new proteins that could work differently in different environments. They induced genetic mutations to produce multiple variants of a protein and then select those that catalyzed a reaction better or in a different environment, and then repeated the cycle.

This is now commonly used to produce new proteins with novel abilities.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for pioneering work in evolutionary science - CNN

Just to point out, this is directed evolution where humans select from the variants produced by mutation to find those that do some job better. Over generations, the proteins produced get better and better at those jobs.

Natural selection is when the environment itself makes such selections so the species adapts to the situation it is in.

 

[Revoltingest]

We should note that this technique isn't unique to chemistry.
It's used in other engineering fields too.

Short story....
Even many decades ago, my pest control guy explained how to use
chemicals properly so as to avoid my insect pests evolving resistance.
Understanding evolution is just so gosh darned useful in so many ways.

Disclaimer....
No, I don't hate God.

 

[exchemist]

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was just announced and 'awards a revolution based on evolution' where they bring 'Darwin to the test tube'.

The goal here was to use directed evolution to produce new proteins that could work differently in different environments. They induced genetic mutations to produce multiple variants of a protein and then select those that catalyzed a reaction better or in a different environment, and then repeated the cycle.

This is now commonly used to produce new proteins with novel abilities.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for pioneering work in evolutionary science - CNN

Just to point out, this is directed evolution where humans select from the variants produced by mutation to find those that do some job better. Over generations, the proteins produced get better and better at those jobs.

Natural selection is when the environment itself makes such selections so the species adapts to the situation it is in.

Actually it is more or less what plant and animal breeders have done for centuries, but transferred to the Petri dish and accelerated.

Darwin himself observed that breeding selected variants, from a natural pool of variation, is a traditional technique in agriculture. This was one of the things that led to his insight that nature can do it too.

 

[Regiomontanus]

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was just announced and 'awards a revolution based on evolution' where they bring 'Darwin to the test tube'.

The goal here was to use directed evolution to produce new proteins that could work differently in different environments. They induced genetic mutations to produce multiple variants of a protein and then select those that catalyzed a reaction better or in a different environment, and then repeated the cycle.

This is now commonly used to produce new proteins with novel abilities.

Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for pioneering work in evolutionary science - CNN

Just to point out, this is directed evolution where humans select from the variants produced by mutation to find those that do some job better. Over generations, the proteins produced get better and better at those jobs.

Natural selection is when the environment itself makes such selections so the species adapts to the situation it is in.

Hello. I understand why you would post the biology one here , but I thought I would mention the one announced yesterday in physics. Some potentially very important applications (curing cancer to name one):

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2018

 

[ecco]

We should note that this technique isn't unique to chemistry.
It's used in other engineering fields too.

Short story....
Even many decades ago, my pest control guy explained how to use
chemicals properly so as to avoid my insect pests evolving resistance.
Understanding evolution is just so gosh darned useful in so many ways.

Disclaimer....
No, I don't hate God.

If you don't hate god why do you want to kill his critters? Huh?

 

[Revoltingest]

If you don't hate god why do you want to kill his critters? Huh?

Sometimes to eat them.
Other times to prevent them from eating my buildings.

Everything can be deconstructed to ultimately be about eating or being eaten.

 

[exchemist]

Sometimes to eat them.
Other times to prevent them from eating my buildings.

Everything can be deconstructed to ultimately be about eating or being eaten.

Spoken like a true animal.

 

[Revoltingest]

Actually it is more or less what plant and animal breeders have done for centuries, but transferred to the Petri dish and accelerated.

Darwin himself observed that breeding selected variants, from a natural pool of variation, is a traditional technique in agriculture. This was one of the things that led to his insight that nature can do it too.

It's all evolution.
The big difference is the fitness function.....
- Selective breeding by humans is one.
- Surviving to reproduce in a natural environment is another.

 

[sun rise]

One of those who won the prize is not a full professor. There's an obvious explanation for a woman winning the Nobel and not being a full professor.

 

[Revoltingest]

One of those who won the prize is not a full professor. There's an obvious explanation for a woman winning the Nobel and not being a full professor.

That one needn't be a professor in order to do ground breaking work?

 

[sun rise]

That one needn't be a professor in order to do ground breaking work?

To be clear, it's about ground-breaking work being grounds for promotion. And to be even more clear, discrimination against women.

 

[Revoltingest]

To be clear, it's about ground-breaking work being grounds for promotion. And to be even more clear, discrimination against women.

Why do you think it's discrimination?

 

[Skwim]

One of those who won the prize is not a full professor. There's an obvious explanation for a woman winning the Nobel and not being a full professor.

Frances H. Arnold

Linus Pauling Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bioengineering and Biochemistry; Director, Donna and Benjamin M. Rosen Bioengineering Center

B.S., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, 1979; Ph.D., Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1985; Postdoctoral, UC Berkeley, Chemistry, 1985; Postdoctoral, Caltech, Chemistry, 1986

Research
Protein engineering, directed protein evolution, structure-guided protein recombination, biocatalysis, biofuels

Selected Awards and Honors (since 2000)
NAS Sackler Prize in Convergence Research (2017); Millennium Technology Prize (2016); Honorary doctorate U. Chicago (2016) and ETH Zurich (2015); National Inventors Hall of Fame (2014); Doctorate honoris causa, Stockholm University (2013); ENI Prize in Renewable and Nonconventional Energy (2013); National Medal of Technology and Innovation (2011); Charles Stark Draper Prize (2011); American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011); Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (2010); Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology (2009); National Academy of Sciences (2008); Linnaeus Lecturer, Uppsala University (2008);Cruickshank Lecturer, Gordon Research Conferences (2008);FASEB Excellence in Science Award (2007); Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal, ACS (2005); Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (2004); David Perlman Lecture Award, ACS (2003); National Academy of Engineering (2000).
source

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[ecco]

Gee. Her creds look much more impressive than Michael Behe's creds. Maybe there is something to this whole evolution thing after all.