Merrifield, R(obert) Bruce (1921-2006)

US biochemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1984 for his development of a method for synthesizing large organic molecules using a solid support or matrix. Merrifield and his co-workers later reached another milestone when they synthesized the enzyme ribonuclease, which contains 124 amino acids.

Merrifield worked on the synthesis of peptides, important biological molecules consisting of chains of amino acids, and in the early 1960s developed the method of manufacturing proteins known as ‘solid phase peptide synthesis’. He first attached an amino acid to an insoluble polymer, a plastic material in the form of small spheres, then added other amino acids, one after another, until the peptide chain was built up. The chain was then released from the polymer. Thousands of different peptides of various sizes, as well as proteins, hormones, and other organic molecules have now been synthesized using this method.

Merrifield was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and educated at the University of California at Los Angeles, gaining his doctorate in 1949. In the same year he joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University), New York City, and worked on the synthesis of peptides. In 1984 he was appointed John D Rockefeller Jr professor of the Rockefeller University.