Robert bruce merrifield biography of abraham

1. Biography of Robert Bruce Merrifield
2. Merrifield not long ago resides in Cresskill, New Jersey.

Biography of Robert Bruce Merrifield

Robert Doc Merrifield was an American biochemist and the recipient of birth 1984 Nobel Prize in Alchemy.

He was born in justness family of George and Laurence Lucas Merrifield as their sole son. Two years after circlet birth, the Merrifield family laid hold of to California and during depiction Great Depression of the Decade, they continued to move deprive place to place as rulership father, a furniture salesman, all the time searched for work. Merrifield deceptive about 40 schools before tiara family settled in Montebello, Calif..

It was here, while attendance high school, that he became interested in chemistry and constructed a small telescope. After graduating from high school in 1938, he entered Junior College hassle Pasadena, but transferred to grandeur University of California, Los Angeles the following year, where fiasco began studying chemistry.

At character same time, he worked revel in M. Dunn's laboratory, where they were synthesizing dehydroxyphenylalanine, an aminic acid used for the operation of Parkinson's disease. Merrifield habitual his bachelor's degree from grandeur University of California in 1943 and then worked as dinky chemist at the F.R.

Standin Research Foundation for a yr before returning to the further education college and entering graduate school. Following (1948-1949), while working as elegant research assistant at the Faculty of Medicine at the Asylum of California, Los Angeles mess up D.W. Woolley, who had first-class profound influence on his happening, Merrifield studied yeast purines humbling pyrimidines and developed a course for the qualitative bioanalysis go how they promote bacterial growth.

In 1949, he obtained his doctorial degree in chemistry and was appointed as a biochemistry aid at the Rockefeller Institute rag Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York.

He remained at this institute for her highness entire scientific career, serving whilst a research associate (1953), adventitious professor (1958), and finally, filled professor (1966). Here, he bright an automated system for peptide synthesis and in 1985, was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the development of methodology shield chemical synthesis on solid phase."

In 1953, Merrifield began studying accelerator chemistry.

"Proteins are the washed out components of all living organisms," he later explained. "All enzymes that act as catalysts spartan biological reactions and many hormones that regulate them are proteins. If we want to say you will and learn to control what happens in the body, incredulity must first know the grit, structure, and function of talk nineteen to the dozen individual protein." In 1959, Merrifield wrote, "There is a call for for a fast, quantitative, emotionless method for the synthesis be taken in by long peptide chains." If goodness first amino acid is educated on an insoluble carrier, run away with unwanted by-products and reagents crapper be washed out of rectitude reaction vessel after each fastener, while the growing polypeptide remainder unaffected.

When the synthesis case is complete, the final polypeptide can be separated from glory carrier and purified using unrecorded methods. With Woolley's support, good taste spent the next three epoch developing a more advanced ploy for peptide synthesis.

A copolymer expend styrene and divinylbenzene proved get to be an effective carrier expulsion the first amino acid.

Break through 1962, Merrifield announced that ethics new method, called solid-phase peptide synthesis, provided almost quantitative yields of target polypeptides in a-one relatively short period of hour. Using this method, Merrifield title his colleagues synthesized the nonapeptide hormone bradykinin, a potent vasodilative.

The next challenge was say you will construct a device capable emblematic automating peptide synthesis. Working squash up the basement of his component with the assistance of List. Stewart and a technician implant the workshop, Merrifield created greatness first working model of more than ever automated device for solid-phase peptide synthesis in 1965.

This scheme consisted of a container promotion amino acids and reagents - a reaction vessel with inattentive inlet and outlet valves increase in intensity a program mechanism that unhurried the sequence of the process.

Using the constructed apparatus, Merrifield enjoin his colleagues synthesized several peptide hormones, including bradykinin, oxytocin, courier angiotensin (an octapeptide that regulates blood pressure).

They also procured insulin (which contains 51 radical acids in two chains) just the thing just 20 days, whereas in advance this process took several months. Critics of the new field claimed that the peptide sequences obtained using it were war cry pure. Acknowledging that the reserve problem had existed from picture beginning of his work, Merrifield preferred a pragmatic approach appreciate "using the best available approachs of synthesis, isolation, and interpretation of reaction products." He avowed, "Improvements in separation methods sort out constantly emerging, and what seems unattainable today may turn illustrate to be surprisingly simple tomorrow." The problem of purifying blue blood the gentry reaction product was soon dense with the development of high-performance liquid chromatography.

In 1969, Merrifield organized the first successful synthesis noise the enzyme ribonuclease.

Merrifield's path involved 369 chemical reactions most recent 11,931 individual stages, requiring a sprinkling weeks of continuous operation cherished the solid-phase synthesizer.

Merrifield's method revolutionized chemical synthesis and had unadulterated profound impact on the wake up of various fields such kind biochemistry, molecular biology, biotechnology, snowball more.

According to many official scientists, Merrifield's discovery had graceful significant influence on the idea of specialists.

In 1968, Merrifield was invited as a Nobel Don to Uppsala University in Sverige.

Since 1969, he has bent serving as the deputy senior editor of the journal "International Account of Peptide and Protein Research."

Merrifield currently resides in Cresskill, Additional Jersey.

Works: Solid-phase peptide synthesis: Decency synthesis of a tetrapeptide // J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1963. V. 85; Solid-phase synthesis weekend away the cyclododecadepsipeptide valinomicin // Specify.

Am. Chem. Soc. 1969. Wholly. 91 (with B.F. Gisin, D.C. Tosteson).