Three scientists who put evolution to work in the lab have won the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Frances Arnold of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena was awarded one half of the $1 million prize for her work on the "directed evolution" of enzymes, proteins that catalyze specific chemical reactions. The enzymes that resulted from her research have made it possible to develop new ways to make key pharmaceuticals and more environmentally friendly processes for making industrial chemicals. George Smith of the University of Missouri in Colombia and Gregory Winter of the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, United Kingdom, share the other half of the award for their research on the directed evolution of antibodies, proteins that the immune system uses to recognize invaders. Their findings enabled large-scale production of specific antibodies, which have made new treatments possible for autoimmune diseases, cancer, and other conditions.

"This year's prize in chemistry rewards a revolution based on evolution," Claes Gustafsson, the chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, said this morning. "Our laureates have applied the principles of Darwin in the test tubes, and used this approach to develop new types of chemicals for the greatest benefit of humankind."

In the 1990s, Arnold was the first to demonstrate how to use directed evolution to produce new enzymes. Her team would start with an enzyme that exists in nature, and isolate the gene that encodes it; then they used different techniques to introduce mutations into the gene and re-insert the new variants into bacteria. The bacteria would produce a variety of new enzymes, which the researchers screened for the qualities they desired, such as the ability to work faster or under challenging conditions, such as high temperatures or the presence of chemicals. They collected the bacteria that produced the desired enzymes and started the process over again, looking for an even better enzyme.

Using this method, researchers have been able to produce enzymes that catalyze reactions that don’t exist in nature. That made it possible to develop, for example, new kinds of fuels derived from plants, new processes for making industrial chemicals without toxic metals or organic solvents, and new pharmaceuticals.

“I can alter anything that's encoded in DNA,” Arnold--the first woman, and eighth living scientist, to be elected to all three of the U.S. National Academies-- told Science in 2008 . "The algorithm of evolution fits everything in biology; there is no such algorithm in other fields.”

Our laureates have applied principles of Darwin in the test tubes, and used this approach to develop new types of chemicals for the greatest benefit of humankind.

Meanwhile, in 1985 Smith developed "an elegant method known as phage display, where a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria – can be used to evolve new proteins," the Swedish Academy of Sciences wrote in a press release issued this morning . "Gregory Winter used phage display for the directed evolution of antibodies, with the aim of producing new pharmaceuticals. The first one based on this method, adalimumab, was approved in 2002 and is used for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases. Since then, phage display has produced anti-bodies that can neutralise toxins, counteract autoimmune diseases and cure metastatic cancer."

The award "wonderfully recognizes the power of harnessing protein evolution to solve a wide range of problems in the molecular sciences," says David Liu, a chemist and directed evolution expert at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "My hat’s off to Smith, Winter, and Arnold for their contributions to this multidisciplinary field that beautifully integrates chemistry, molecular biology, and protein science."

"At first glance it may seem that the Chemistry Nobel has been ‘biologised’ again. It is sometimes hard to see how an enzyme, or a phage, are ‘chemistry’ – but they are!" Oliver Jones, a chemist at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said in a statement distributed by the U.K. Science Media Center. " Chemistry underpins so many things in our lives, even if it is not always immediately obvious and it is great that these discoveries are getting recognised.”

With reporting by Robert F. Service. This story will be updated.