Bruce Merrifield, 86, Chemist, Won Nobel Prize in 1984

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The New York Sun

Bruce Merrifield, who died Sunday at 84, won the 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating a method for rapidly synthesizing proteins and peptides.

Merrifield developed the method, known as solid phase peptide synthesis, during the early 1960s at the Rockefeller University. It has been credited with a wide variety of applications, including the investigation of enzymes, hormones, and antibodies. In recent years, the method has been especially important for the rapid discovery of new, custom-designed therapeutic agents.

Merrifield was raised in southern California, and earned his Ph.D. in 1949 from the University of California at Los Angeles. In 1949, he came to Rockefeller as an assistant. He became a full professor in 1966, and was named a John D. Rockefeller Jr. Professor in 1983.

In 1993, he published his scientific autobiography “Life during a Golden Age of Peptide Chemistry.”

Active at the bench until a few years ago, Merrifield dedicated a large part of his research to refining solid phase synthesis in order to tackle ever more complex challenges, including chemical means for the control of blood sugar in diabetics.

In 1998, Merrifield was named one of 75 “distinguished contributors to the chemical enterprise” by Chemical & Engineering News, the news magazine of the American Chemical Society. In 2003, the Journal of the American Chemical Society listed Merrifield’s classic 1963 paper, in which he first described the solid phase synthesis technique, as the fifth most cited paper in the journal’s 125-year history.

Bruce Merrifield
Born July 15, 1921 in Littlefield, Texas. He died May 14 at his home in Cresskill, N.J.; survived by his wife, Elizabeth Furlong, children Nancy Waugh, James Merrifield, Betsy Grindstaff, Cathy Edwards, Laurie Nelson, and Sally Giannandrea, and 16 grandchildren.


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