Phage display founders win Nobel for chemistry

The 2018 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their work on directed evolution of proteins and enzymes, which led to the development of human antibody-based therapeutics. The first, Humira adalimumab from AbbVie Inc. (NYSE:ABBV), was approved in 2002 for rheumatoid arthritis, and later for psoriasis and inflammatory bowel diseases.

Half the SEK9 million ($1 million) prize was shared by George Smith, who is a professor emeritus at University of Missouri (Columbia, Mo.), and Gregory Winter, who is research leader emeritus in Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Cambridge, U.K.). The other half went to Frances Arnold, who is a professor at California Institute of Technology...