Bruce Merrifield and solid-phase peptide synthesis: A historical assessment

Bruce Merrifield, trained as a biochemist, had to address three major challenges related to the development and acceptance of solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS). The challenges were (1) to reduce the concept of peptide synthesis on a insoluble support to practice, (2) overcome the resistance of synthetic chemists to this novel approach, and (3) establish that a biochemist had the scientific credentials to effect the proposed revolutionary change in chemical synthesis. How these challenges were met is discussed in this article. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers (Pept Sci) 90: 175-184, 2008.