Lecture by Dr Morten Meldal, 2022 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, at the Molecular Frontiers Symposium "On Human Origins and the Future of Humanity", at Lund University April 18-19, 2024. The symposium was co-organized with Lund University and the Royal Physiographic Society of Lund.
ABSTRACT:
The concept of click chemistry matured simultaneously in different laboratories around the world in the 1990’s. There was an urgent need for quantitative chemical reactions to cope with the pressure from combinatorial science to synthesize, screen and identify millions of compounds. We serendipitously discovered the CuAAC click reaction in 2001. The mechanism of the reaction will be discussed, and its applications will be presented, as well as existential aspects of our fundamental understanding of chemistry and the importance of serendipity.
