From the Editors

The Sceptical Chymist | Bruce Merrifield

Published in Chemistry

Go to the profile of Joshua Finkelstein
Joshua Finkelstein
Like

Share this post

Choose a social network to share with, or copy the URL to share elsewhere

Share with...

...or copy the link

This is a representation of how your post may appear on social media. The actual post will vary between social networks

I’m sure many of you know that Bruce Merrifield passed away a few weeks ago. In today’s issue of Nature, Stephen Kent wrote an obituary describing Merrifield and his accomplishments.

If your institution subscribes to the ACS archives, you can download “”http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/searchRedirect.cgi/jacsat/1963/85/i14/pdf/ja00897a025.pdf">Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis. I. The Synthesis of a Tetrapeptide" (you should be able to download the first page for free). According to C&EN, this was the “fifth most cited paper in the journal’s 125-year history.”

You may also want to take a look at Gutte’s & Merrifield’s classic 1971 JACS paper, in which they reported the synthesis of ribonuclease A (124 amino acids long: this “required 369 chemical reactions and 11,931 steps of the automated peptide synthesis machine without any intermediate isolation steps.”)

Merrifield also wrote two reviews in Science (in 1965 and 1986) – they’re both pretty interesting reviews (and it’s amazing to see how much changed in those 21 years…)

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Associate Editor, Nature)

Go to the profile of Joshua Finkelstein
Joshua Finkelstein

Please sign in or register for FREE

If you are a registered user on Research Communities by Springer Nature, please sign in

Sign In Register

Cookies

We use cookies to ensure the functionality of our website, to personalize content and advertising, to provide social media features, and to analyze our traffic. If you allow us to do so, we also inform our social media, advertising and analysis partners about your use of our website. You can decide for yourself which categories you want to deny or allow. Please note that based on your settings not all functionalities of the site are available.

Further information can be found in our privacy policy.

Cookie Control

Customise your preferences for any tracking technology

The following allows you to customize your consent preferences for any tracking technology used to help us achieve the features and activities described below. To learn more about how these trackers help us and how they work, refer to the cookie policy. You may review and change your preferences at any time.

See the full cookie policy See the full privacy policy
More information

These trackers are used for activities that are strictly necessary to operate or deliver the service you requested from us and, therefore, do not require you to consent.

More information

These trackers help us to deliver personalized marketing content and to operate, serve and track ads.

More information

These trackers help us to deliver personalized marketing content to you based on your behaviour and to operate, serve and track social advertising.

More information

These trackers help us to measure traffic and analyze your behaviour with the goal of improving our service.

More information

These trackers help us to provide a personalized user experience by improving the quality of your preference management options, and by enabling the interaction with external networks and platforms.