American biochemist (1921–2006). Inventor of solid phase peptide synthesis and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1984

Let's take a look at the history of peptides and how they are evolving. Since 1920, when insulin produced from the pancreas of pigs and cows revolutionized the way diabetes was treated, bioactive peptides have been used in medicine. At first, only extracted organic peptides were used as drugs. Advances in peptide synthesis enabled the development of the first synthetic peptide drugs, oxytocin and vasopressin, in the 1950s. With the invention of solid-phase peptide synthesis in 1963, Merrifield revolutionized chemical synthesis. Almost all peptides could be accessed rapidly and reliably using this approach. The first recombinant medicinal peptides, such as insulin, came on the market twenty years later, when scientists discovered how to alter genes. Cohen, Bloom and Edwards observed a sharp increase in the use of peptide drugs in 1999, but could only recognize natural peptides. The search for new peptides for a wider range of targets became easier with the development of in vitro display techniques and advances in sequence synthesis libraries. The pharmacokinetic characteristics of peptides were also the subject of intense research. All these modifications led to an increase in the peptide market.