Peptide chemistry revolution
ANNA MARIA PAPINI
Laboratory of Peptide & Protein Chemistry & Biology, Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico, University of Firenze
Department of Organic Chemistry, University of Firenze, via della Lastruccia 13, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), I-50019, Italy
Peptides represent a very attractive and interesting class of molecules, which stand out foradaptability to a large number of scientific applications. The field of application of peptidesis so wide that is generally indicated with “peptide science”, a privilege that peptides canshare with few other molecules. Peptide science is more and more emerging as a complexand interdisciplinary field, which is not only restricted to basic researches but is finally findingits place also in the development of therapeutics, diagnostics, and nanotechnologies. In factnowadays, peptides are not exclusively used to mimic and study the activity of proteins but theyare exploited in many different fields of application because of their modular structure and oftheir amino acid composition (1). Amino acids can be used to design complex peptide scaffoldsand to influence physico-chemical properties of peptides, which can show extremely differentbehaviour according to their amino acid composition. Peptide science is in a never-ending evolution that is also promotinga fast revolution of the technologies necessary for peptide production. Moreover, the solid-phase revolution, a key point inpeptide ...