Gyógyszereink és a szimmetria

The 2001 Nobel Prize was awarded to Professor B. Sharpless, Professor R. Noyori and pharmaceutical researcher W. Knowles for their work in the field of chiral synthesis. The scientific and technical importance of this discipline is evidenced by the fact that, as a rare exception, an industrial researcher has also been awarded the prize. What is chirality? The best way to illustrate it is perhaps with the relationship of the right and the left hands. These relate to each other as image and mirror image. In the arts there are a number of works demonstrating such a relationship, perhaps, the most well known is Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel where the Lord's right hand meets Adam's left hand. The majority of the organic molecules of a living organism are chiral, and, for some as yet unknown reason, only one of the forms is to be found. Such is the limonene that tastes and smells lemon while its mirror image smells orange. There are however, more important differences that can mean a matter of life and death which is why intake of chiral medicines in the appropriate spatial form is so vital.