Research
Kagan and Soai win Nobel chemistry prize for mirror-image molecule research
The award recognizes methods for producing one version of chiral molecules, which STAT said could help make more precise drugs with fewer side effects.
Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai received the 2026 Nobel Prize in chemistry for research on controlling reactions that produce mirror-image molecules, STAT reported. These molecules, also known as chiral molecules, can have different effects. STAT cited medicines in which one version treats cough and its mirror version is a painkiller, and said the mirror molecule can sometimes cause serious side effects.
STAT reported that Kagan found a way in 1986 to make reactions produce more of one version. Seventeen years later, Soai developed an experiment that produced only one version from a non-chiral combination of molecules. The report said more than half of clinically employed drugs are chiral and that such drugs are typically sold as racemates, equal mixtures of the two versions.
