CONGRATULATIONS TO PROFESSOR CAROLYN BERTOZZI ON BEING AWARDED THE 2022 WOLF PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY!


Professor Carolyn Bertozzi has been jointly awarded the 2022 Wolf Prize in Chemistry for creating a new biochemical field of study and contributing to the understanding of the glycocalyx, a network of cellular molecules important to health and disease.
Awarded since 1978, the Wolf Prize is an international award given by the Wolf Foundation. It recognizes “outstanding scientists and artists from around the world for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples.” Categories of the prize include medicine, agriculture, mathematics, chemistry, physics, painting and sculpting, music and architecture.
Professor Bertozzi founded the field of bioorthogonal chemistry, a term that refers to the chemical reactions scientists can perform within cells or organisms without interfering with the normal functions of the living things. Using the methodologies she and others created, she made great strides in understanding the glycocalyx, a dense network of sugar-coated molecules found on the surface of almost every cell, and its role in human health. “Her pioneering work has opened up basic drug discovery and therapeutic targets associated with cancer, inflammation, bacterial infection, tuberculosis and most recently COVID-19,” the Wolf Foundation said in a statement.
Carolyn Bertozzi has been a professor at Stanford since 2015 and was among the first faculty in ChEM-H. She has also been a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator since 2000.