title: Patchwork protein chemistry: a practitioner's treatise on the advances in synthetic peptide stitchery.
abstract: With the study of peptides and proteins at the heart of many scientific endeavors, the omics era heralded a multitude of opportunities for chemists and biologists alike. Across the interface with life sciences, peptide chemistry plays an indispensable role, and progress made over the past decades now allows proteins to be treated as molecular patchworks stitched together through synthetic tailoring. The continuous elaboration of sophisticated strategies notwithstanding, Merrifield's solid-phase methodology remains a cornerstone of chemical protein design. Although the non-practitioner might misjudge peptide synthesis as trivial, routine, or dull given its long history, we comment here on its many advances, obstacles, and prospects from a practitioner's point of view. While sharing our perspectives through thematic highlights across the literature, this treatise provides an interpretive overview as a guide to novices, and a recap for specialists.
authors.affiliation: Organic and Biomimetic Chemistry Research Group, Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 (S4), 9000 Ghent, Belgium. dieter.verzele@ua.ac.be
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Verzele
authors.forename: Annemieke
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Madder
mesh_terms: D000215:Acylation; D019277:Entropy; D010455:Peptides / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D060327:Solid-Phase Synthesis Techniques; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D011506:Proteins; D013438:Sulfhydryl Compounds