Created: 19^th June 1998, last updated: 19^th June 1998, © 1998 ABRF

Each year the ABRF Award recognizes outstanding contributions to the development of instrumentation or methodology in the biological sciences. This award is part of our commitment to recognize the central role that methodology plays in the discovery process. It is made possible by the generous support of the Hewlett-Packard Corporation.

The 1998 ABRF Award for Outstanding Contributions to Biomolecular Technologies was awarded to Dr. Bruce Merrifield. On May 26, 1959, Dr. Merrifield began a new page in his laboratory notebook entitled, "A New Approach to the Continuous, Stepwise Synthesis of Peptides." He began, "There is a need for a rapid, quantitative method for synthesis of long chain peptides", and he then laid out his strategy for devising such a method. This was the origin of the development of the fundamental concept of utilizing solid supports for repetitive, synthetic chemical procedures, which permitted reactions to be so efficient as to near completion, and in which intermediates, by-products and solvents are easily removed, perhaps his most important achievement. After this first notebook entry, several years of experimentation ensued, investigating polymers and chemistries, with periods of successes and disappointments, leading to the first successful solid-phase synthesis of a peptide. It is difficult to condense years of accomplishment into a few sentences, but synthesis of biologically active peptides and then of the enzyme ribonuclease by solid-phase peptide synthesis, are just a few highlights.

Dr. Bruce Merrifield (center) receiving the 1998 ABRF Award from ABRF President Ruth Angeletti (left) and Hewlett-Packard representative Jerome Bailey (right). Photo courtesy of Ron Niece

Dr Merrifield's work encompassed the development of resins, protecting groups and chemical strategies, and the engineering which brought automation to peptide chemistry. His landmark work opened the way for peptide synthesis to.become routine, and for the development of sophisticated automated instruments that brought the technology to individual laboratories. Solid-phase synthetic techniques were used to develop efficient synthesis of oligonucleotides, and are the basic premise upon which array technologies are based. Solid-phase peptide synthesis has permitted development of drugs as therapeutics, enabled development of highly specific antibody probes to proteins which cannot even be isolated, provided strategies for studies of structure-activity relationships in proteins and peptides, and has fostered the field of peptide mimetics. Merrifield technologies are the cornerstone of many ABRF resource and research laboratories, and have formed the foundation for hundreds of successful businesses, both large and small. Dr. Merrifield has also made important contributions to the nurturing and education of several generations of chemists, who continue to push the frontiers of the chemistry of peptides and other compounds.

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