Lehn, Jean-Marie, << zjahn mah REE >> (1939-…), a French chemist, shared the 1987 Nobel Prize for chemistry with American scientists Donald Cram and Charles Pedersen. Lehn was awarded the prize for developing complex molecules that can “recognize” and bind themselves to specific atoms or molecules. Scientists may one day use such complex molecules to imitate the action of the large biological molecules that control processes in living things. Lehn contributed to the chemistry of nervous processes when he produced a molecule capable of recognizing acetylcholine, a substance of key importance in transmitting nerve signals).
Jean-Marie Pierre Lehn was born in Rosheim, Bas Rhin, France. In 1963, he gained his Ph.D. at the University of Strasbourg for work in the area of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR is a technique that can be used to study the bonding of atoms within molecules, and to generate images of the tissues within the human body (see Magnetic resonance imaging ). In 1963, Lehn spent a year at Harvard University in the United States, where he took part in the project of synthesizing vitamin B12.
Returning to the University of Strasbourg, Lehn became interested in the contribution that chemistry could make to the understanding of nerve processes. In 1967, he began to synthesize molecules that would imitate the action of certain antibiotics in helping sodium and potassium ions to pass through membranes in nerve cells. This opened up a field that Lehn called “supramolecular chemistry.” It involved interactions among molecules that depend on their large-scale shape and structure, rather than on interactions directly between their atoms. From 1976, Lehn worked on artificial photosynthesis (building up complex compounds from water and carbon dioxide using the energy of light). He was professor at Strasbourg until 1979, when he became professor at the College de France in Paris. His later work included research into “molecular devices,” devices that in theory could pack huge amounts of computing power into a space too small to be seen with the unaided eye.
