Background
Merrifield, Robert Bruce was born on July 15, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Son of George E. and Lorene (Lucas) Merrifield.
biochemist chemist university professor
Merrifield, Robert Bruce was born on July 15, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. Son of George E. and Lorene (Lucas) Merrifield.
In 1923 the family moved to California where he attended nine grade schools and two high schools before graduating from Montebello High School in 1939. He returned to graduate school at the University of California, Los Angeles chemistry department with professor of biochemistry Master of Surgery Dunn to develop microbiological methods for the quantitation of the pyrimidines.
lieutenant was there that he developed an interest both in chemistry and in astronomy. After two years at Pasadena Junior College he transferred to the University of California at Los Angeles (University of California, Los Angeles). After graduation in chemistry he worked for a year at the Philip R. Park Research Foundation taking care of an animal colony and assisting with growth experiments on synthetic amino acid diets.
One of these was the experiment by Geiger that first demonstrated that the essential amino acids must be present simultaneously for growth to occur.
At the Institute, later Rockefeller University, he worked as an Assistant for Doctor Doctorate.W. Woolley on a dinucleotide growth factor he discovered in graduate school and on peptide growth factors that Woolley had discovered earlier. These studies led to the need for peptide synthesis and, eventually, to the idea for solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) in 1959.
In 1963, he was sole author of a classic paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in which he reported a method he called "solid phase peptide synthesis". This article is the fifth most cited paper in the journal"s history.
In the mid-60s Doctor Merrifield"s laboratory first synthesized bradykinin, angiotensin, desamino-oxytocin and insulin.
Doctor Merrifield"s method greatly stimulated progress in biochemistry, pharmacology and medicine, making possible the systematic exploration of the structural basis of the activities of enzymes, hormones and antibodies. The development and applications of the technique continued to occupy his laboratory, where he remained active at the bench until recently. I.e. that information coded in one dimension can directly determine the three-dimensional structure of a molecule.
SPPS has been expanded to include solid phase synthesis of nucleotides and saccharides.
Robert Bruce Merrifield has been listed as a noteworthy Biochemist, educator by Marquis Who's Who.
Member American Chemical Society (award creative work synthetic organic chemistry 1972, Hirschmann award in peptide chemistry 1990, Glenn T. Seaborg award 1993), NAS United States of America, American Society Biological Chemists, Sigma Xi, Phi Lambda Upsilon, Alpha Chi Sigma.
National Academy of Sciences United States of America
American Society Biological Chemists
American Chemical Society (award creative work synthetic organic chemistry 1972, Hirschmann award in peptide chemistry 1990, Glenn T. Seaborg award 1993)
Alpha Chi Sigma
Phi Lambda Upsilon
Sigma Xi
Tennis, camping, hiking.
Married Elizabeth Furlong, June 20, 1949. Children: Nancy, James, Betsy, Cathy, Laurie, Sally.
