Three researchers won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday, for their discovery of methods to “click” molecular building blocks together and form complex molecules that can be used for everything from drug development to crafting entirely new materials.

Morten Meldal of the University of Copenhagen and K. Barry Sharpless of Scripps Research in California won for their development, around the turn of the century, of “click chemistry”—a way to link two molecules together in a simple reaction that creates larger, more complicated forms of molecules with myriad capabilities. “It’s like building Legos,” a member of the Nobel committee said. This is the second Nobel for Sharpless, who won the prize in 2001 for designing specialized chemical reactions. (Read more about his initial prize in this Scientific American article.)

Carolyn Bertozzi of Stanford University took this “click” approach into the realm of living cells. In a method dubbed “bio-orthagonal chemistry,” Bertozzi figured out how to attach light-emitting compounds to biological molecules within a cell. This enabled her and other scientists to track these molecules inside the cell,  learning how the molecules contribute to disease —and developing drugs to combat the illness process. (

“I’m absolutely stunned,” Bertozzi said, when reached by phone from the Nobel announcement conference and told she had won the prize. “I’m still not entirely positive this is real. But it’s getting realer by the minute.” Bertozzi is the eighth woman to win the chemistry Nobel.