Peptides at the turn of the century

摘要

Peptide chemistry has made a significant contribution to the development of biomolecular research during the last century by building bridges in various fields of natural,medicinal and pharmaceutical sciences.The discovery of the nature of chemical bond between two amino acids by E.Fischer at the turn of the XIX/XX centuries made possible the preparation of peptides by synthetic means.Introduction of trie first modern N-protection group (benzyloxycarbonyl) by M.Bergman and L.Zervas can be considered as a breakthrough achieved during the early 1930s.Further advancement (e.g.,activation strategies of COOH,side chain blocking groups,coupling reagents) in synthetic,solution phase peptide chemistry made possible the preparation of fully active hormones available for both basic research and pharmaceutical applications in 1950s.