“Making molecules is hard work. Atoms must be stitched together into specific arrangements through a series of chemical reactions that are often slow, convoluted and wasteful. The 2021 Nobel Prize in chemistry recognizes two scientists who developed a tool at the turn of the century that revolutionized how chemists construct new molecules, making the process faster and more environmentally friendly.”
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“Making new drugs or designing novel materials often requires building new molecules from simpler chemical building blocks. But these chemical building blocks can’t just be thrown together. Instead, they must be carefully combined in precise arrangements through a series of chemical reactions. Many chemical reactions produce two versions of a molecule that are mirror images of one another, and often those two versions can have very different effects. For example, thalidomide, a drug prescribed in the 1950s and ‘60s for morning sickness, caused birth defects in more than 10,000 babies because of one mirror image of this molecule (SN: 12/24/94). Consequently, building these asymmetric molecules and controlling which version of a molecule gets produced is extremely important, especially for drug development.”
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https://www.sciencenews.org/article/chemistry-nobel-prize-2021-molecule-build-tool-list-macmillan