ABSTRACT
The beginnings of peptide synthetic chemistry can be traced to 1901 when E. Fischer and E. Fourneau reported on the first systematic synthesis of a dipeptide, and further, back to 1882 when T. Curtius unintentionally succeeded in the first in vitro formation of a peptide bond. The isolation and characterization of a hitherto unrecognized peptide almost invariably entails renewed peptide synthetic activities that may aim at a variety of goals. A novel application of peptide synthetic chemistry is in the production of peptides to be used as immunogens in the generation of antisera specific for proteins of which the peptide represents only a part. Numerous peptides have been routinely prepared by solution and solid-phase methods as well as by other techniques such as liquid-phase or alternating solid-liquid phase procedures and remarkable advances have been made in the art of chemical peptide synthesis.
