Protein research takes Chemistry Nobel Prize

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded to three scientists for their discoveries in enzyme research.

Americans Frances Arnold and George P Smith will share the prize with Briton Gregory Winter, who is based at Cambridge University, BBC News reports.

This year's winners used a technique called directed evolution to create new proteins.

These have been used in areas as diverse as the manufacture of new drugs and green fuels.

Frances Arnold, from Caltech in Pasadena, was first to use a method mimicking natural selection in order to develop enzymes that would perform specific tasks.

Enzymes are biological catalysts - which speed up chemical reactions in biological cells.

Prof Arnold's directed evolution techniques are now routinely used to develop new enzymes.