CHEMISTRY NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS 2002 73 CHIMIA 2003, 57, No. 1/2

Chimia 57 (2003) 73–73 © Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft ISSN 0009–4293

Chemistry Nobel Prize 2002 Goes to Analytical Chemistry

K. Wüthrich J.B. Fenn K. Tanaka

October 2002 was a great month for complexes, the ribosome, or even intact 2nd Japan–China Joint Symposium on Swiss science with Kurt Wüthrich of the viruses by using ESI. Fenn did his original Mass Spectrometry, and published them in ETH Zürich winning the Chemistry Nobel work on ESI while a professor at Yale Uni- 1988 (Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. prize 2002. The other half of the 2002 versity in the early 1980s. Coming from the 1988, 2, 151–153). In his original work, Chemistry Nobel prize went jointly to field of molecular beams, he was following Tanaka and his coworkers used a sample John B. Fenn of the Virginia Common- up on earlier (but unsuccessful) work by preparation where the analyte is mixed with wealth University (Richmond, USA) and to Malcolm Dole to produce gas-phase ions ultrafine cobalt powder and glycerol as a Koichi Tanaka of Shimadzu Corp. (Kyoto, from very large molecules. Fenn’s experi- vacuum-stable binding medium. When ir- Japan), who independently developed tech- ence with molecular beam methods helped radiated with a pulse from a low energy ni- niques to ionize large molecules for study him to succeed where the earlier research in trogen laser, the metal particles heat up rap- by mass spectrometry. This recognition for this direction had failed. Because electro- idly, releasing glycerol and intact analyte the development of analytical methods for spray ionization produces multiply charged molecules into the gas phase. A small pro- high molecular weight molecules is well ions, it was relatively easy to observe portion of them forms ions during the des- deserved and even overdue, given the enor- macromolecular ions even in the early days orption/ionization event that are then ana- mous impact these methodologies have had of ESI: due to fairly low m/z values, most lyzed by a time-of-flight mass spectrome- in biochemistry, proteomics, polymer sci- signals were observable with standard ter. The method is hardly used in its original ence, and many other fields. quadrupole mass spectrometers. Initially form nowadays but became enormously Kurt Wüthrich’s achievements in NMR Fenn had trouble getting acceptance from popular by the development of a closely re- spectroscopy of macromolecules have al- other mass spectrometrists, who did not pay lated method, matrix-assisted laser desorp- ready been honored with a special article in much attention to the potential use of ESI: tion/ionization (MALDI). Developed by this journal (Chimia 2002, 56, 712–713). when Fenn presented his initial results at an Franz Hillenkamp and Michael Karas, then This article is thus dedicated to the mass American Chemical Society meeting in at the University of Münster, Germany, spectrometric part of the Chemistry Nobel 1984, only a handful of people attended the MALDI is now the method of choice for 2002. Fenn and Tanaka were chosen by the session. However, the opportunity to use proteomics as well as for the mass spectro- Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for ESI for interfacing liquid separation meth- metric characterization of synthetic poly- ‘their development of soft desorption meth- ods with mass spectrometry quickly con- mers. ods for mass spectrometric analyses of bio- vinced many researchers as well as instru- logical macromolecules’. ment manufacturers of the potential of this Renato Zenobi Fenn, 85, won for the development of method. It is now the most widely used Laboratorium für Organische Chemie electrospray ionization (ESI), which gives method for LC-MS interfacing. ETH Hönggerberg HCI researchers a rapid and easy-to-implement Tanaka, 43, won for his work on laser CH–8093 Zürich method for analyzing a wide range of polar desorption/ionization of macromolecules, molecules, such as proteins, carbohydrates, work he did in his late twenties in Japan. and nucleic acids. ESI employs nebuliza- Tanaka, one of the youngest chemistry lau- tion and charging of a liquid sample stream reates, has been an R&D engineer with Shi- that is passed through a capillary by the ap- madzu throughout his career and has never plication of a high, inhomogeneous electric earned a doctorate. He first presented his re- field. Nowadays, researchers are able to sults of laser desorption/ionization of high ionize huge molecules, for example protein molecular weight molecules in 1987 at the