U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
NIH Office of the Director (OD) <https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/nih-office-director>
For Immediate Release: Wednesday, October 5, 2016
CONTACT: NIH Office of Communications, 301-496-5787, <e-mail:nihnmb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
NIH GRANTEE WINS 2016 NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY
The 2016 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to National Institutes of Health grantee Sir J. Fraser Stoddart of Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Stoddart shares the award jointly with Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Ph.D., of the University of Strasbourg, France and Bernard L. Feringa, Ph.D., of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, for their design and production of molecular machines.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their work has "miniaturized machines and taken chemistry to a new dimension."
Molecular machines are tiny molecules with controllable movements, which can perform a task when energy is added. The machines are a thousand times thinner than a strand of hair. These machines may be used in the development of new materials, sensors and create energy-storage mechanisms too tiny to be seen with the naked eye.
"Another application of these molecular machines could be delivering drugs within the body, for example, by applying them directly to cancer cells," said NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. "NIH is proud to have supported this work."
NIH's National Cancer Institute began supporting James Fraser Stoddart in 2010 and has provided more than $2 million in funding.
The Office of the Director, the central office at NIH, is responsible for setting policy for NIH, which includes 27 Institutes and Centers. This involves planning, managing, and coordinating the programs and activities of all NIH components. The Office of the Director also includes program offices which are responsible for stimulating specific areas of research throughout NIH. Additional information is available at https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/nih-office-director.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit <www.nih.gov>.
NIH...Turning Discovery into Health -- Registered, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
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The online version of this news release contains an image of the Nobel Prize medallion <https://www.nih.gov/sites/default/files/news-events/news-releases/2016/nobel-medal-2.jpg>.
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