Merrifield, Robert Bruce (1921-2006), an American biochemist, won the 1984 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his method of producing chains of protein molecules called polypeptides. By replacing the laborious and inefficient methods used before, Merrifield revolutionized the study of these complex materials, which are vital to the functioning of life. His technique made possible the automated processes that are central to modern genetic engineering.
Merrifield was born on July 15, 1921, in Fort Worth, Texas. He obtained his Ph.D. at the University of California at Los Angeles. From 1949, Merrifield worked at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York City, where he studied proteins. Proteins perform a huge variety of functions in living things, including clotting blood, building muscle, and fighting infections. The large protein molecules called polypeptides are chains of the chemical building-blocks known as peptides. Each peptide consists of a chain of several hundred amino-acid molecules. At first, Merrifield used traditional methods to make peptides, but he needed a rapid and automatic method to create polypeptides. He developed the method called solid-phase peptide synthesis. By 1963, he was able to synthesize bradykinin, a hormone produced in inflammation. Merrifield then synthesized the hormone insulin. Eventually, scientists produced an enormous range of important substances by means of solid-phase peptide synthesis. Merrifield worked and taught at Rockefeller University from 1949 to 1992. He died on May 14, 2006.
See also Protein (The structure of proteins) .
