Jean-Marie Lehn
Lehn, Jean-Marie (1939-), a French chemist, shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing complex molecules that can bind themselves to specific atoms or other molecules. He shared the prize with Americans Donald James Cram and Charles John Pedersen, who also pioneered the building of artificial molecules.
Lehn was born Sept. 30, 1939, in Rosheim, a small medieval city in northeastern France, to Pierre Lehn, a baker and organist, and Marie (Salomon) Lehn. Lehn developed an interest in science in high school. He went to the University of Strasbourg, where he became engrossed in the study of organic chemistry. He began performing laboratory experiments at home and became stimulated by lectures of a favorite professor.
In 1963, Lehn earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Strasbourg for his work in nuclear magnetic resonance, a technique used to study the bonding of atoms within molecules and to generate images of internal bodily tissues. He spent a year at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, participating in a large project to synthesize vitamin B12.
Returning to Strasbourg, Lehn studied the chemistry involved in nerve processes. He understood that the nervous system worked through a chemical process that distributed sodium and potassium ions (atoms with an electric charge) across membranes. Ions that cannot penetrate membranes bind with “carrier” molecules, creating a compound that can then pass through. He reasoned that if such a compound can occur naturally, he could develop an artificial compound that would do the same thing. He produced a synthetic molecule that acts as a “host” for acetylcholine, one of the most important substances in the chemical process that sends messages through the nervous system to the human brain.
By 1967, his work on the human nervous system had advanced considerably, developing into what he would later call supramolecular chemistry.