Chuan He, Jeffery W. Kelly, and Hiroaki Suga receive 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry

The 2023 Wolf Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to Chuan He of the University of Chicago, Jeffery W. Kelly of Scripps Research Institute, and Hiroaki Suga of the University of Tokyo “for pioneering discoveries that illuminate the functions and pathological dysfunctions of RNA and proteins and for creating strategies to harness the capabilities of these biopolymers in new ways to ameliorate human diseases,” according to the prize announcement.

The three researchers do not work in the same field but are aware of each other’s work, He says, adding that their collective goal is to try and understand biology at the molecular level. Since discovering that RNA bases are transiently methylated in 2011 (Nat. Chem. Biol., DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.687), He has spent much of his time at UChicago studying how chemical modification of RNA can regulate gene expression and its impact on health and disease. “In the last 10 years, we’ve been having so much fun,” he says.

Kelly’s work at Scripps focuses on understanding how proteins fold, misfold, and aggregate. Kelly helped develop the drug tafamidis to stop the aggregation of transthyretin, a protein that forms amyloids (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2012, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1121005109). The compound, now marketed by Pfizer, is authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration to slow the progression of two diseases—familial amyloid polyneuropathy, and familial and sporadic amyloid cardiomyopathy—which lead to nerve and heart damage, respectively.

In Tokyo, Suga has worked on both RNA and proteins. Earlier in his career, he developed ways to add nonstandard amino acids onto transfer RNA using an RNA catalyst. This work enabled him to build large peptide libraries, which he used to search for bioactive peptides to develop new drugs.

All three winners say they are honored to receive the award and recognize the importance of all the members of their labs, past and present.

“Receiving the Wolf Prize was a genuine surprise and is an immense privilege,” Kelly says in a statement emailed to C&EN. “I am grateful to the remarkable scientists who chose me and to numerous gifted trainees in my laboratory for their creative experimental contributions.”

“This prize is not only for me but also all members of the Suga laboratory,” without whose work he would not have received this recognition, Suga says.

Each winner will receive a certificate and $100,000 at a ceremony in Israel later this year, as will other Wolf Prize laureates in fields such as medicine, agriculture, mathematics, and the arts.