Nordic Life Science 1
lived in the small town of Bellshill, Scotland, a
nd David MacMillan’s older brother was the first in the neighborhood to go to college, where he studied physics. After graduating, he got a job making more money than the boys’ father, who promptly sent young David to college to study physics as well. At the stately and nearly ancient University of Glasgow – founded in 1451 – physics was taught early in the morning in a cold room with a leaky roof. MacMillan also signed up for a chemistry class, which was taught later in the day in a building with heat and an intact roof. Then he took organic chemistry and found his calling. “It was one of the few things I could read and understand immediately,” he says. “Organic stuff just makes sense.” So began MacMillan’s life’s work, which culminated in him winning half the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of asymmetric organocatalysts, which produces organic, carbon-based molecules that are mirror images of one another and can drive chemical reactions. MacMillan, who currently is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Merck Center for Catalysis at Princeton University in the U.S., shared the Prize with German scientist Benjamin List, who was working with organocatalysis on his own. It took several tries for MacMillan to get the news that he had won a Nobel Prize. When a colleague called MacMillan early on an October morning to tell him he was a Nobel Laureate, he thought it was a prank, hung up and went back to sleep. Later he got up, went to get coffee and saw an artist’s rendering of himself in the New York Times, accompanying a story on Nobel Prize winners. The organocatalysts produced in the work by MacMillan and others can be used in the creation of pharmaceuticals, perfumes and even clothing and shampoo. They are less expensive to create than metal catalysts, which are often toxic. The organocatalysts also can break down plastics so they can be recycled. MacMillan started looking for alternatives after several years of the cumbersome process of working with metal catalysts. “I had to make catalysts and I had to use big boxes,” he says. Scientists cannot handle metal catalysts and must manipulate them in a box while wearing gloves. “I was working in this box for two years, and I wanted to use organic molecules. I wanted to stay away from metals, because organic molecules are more sustainable and better for the environment,” McMillan says. He created his first organocatalyst by combining an amino acid from an artificial sweetener with nail polish remover. “The first one was so cheap,” MacMillan says. The use of organic material “democratizes” this research, he says, because the organic catalysts are more affordable. “These make the process more accessible to people. When you make tiny changes (in organocatalysts), you can go from something smelling incredibly bad to sweet. It amazes me to this day.” NORDICLIFESCIENCE.ORG 51