Origins
The American Peptide Society, APS, is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization dedicated to advancing research on peptides, their chemistry, biology, and biomedical applications. Founded in 1990, the Society grew out of a meeting tradition that had already been running for more than two decades.
That tradition began in August 1968, when peptide chemists gathered at Yale University for the first American Peptide Symposium. Organized by Saul W. Lande and Boris Weinstein, the meeting answered a clear need: a dedicated forum for peptide synthesis, structure, and biological activity. The Symposium returned every two years and grew steadily in scope and attendance, mirroring the rapid expansion of peptide research across the United States and abroad.
By 1990, the field had matured enough to warrant a permanent organization. The American Peptide Society was incorporated that year to support peptide science and to steward the Symposium series that had launched it. The Twelfth American Peptide Symposium, held in 1991 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts General Hospital in Cambridge, became the first meeting convened under the Society's auspices.
In the decades since, advances in synthesis, structural analysis, and biological application have continually reshaped the Symposium's scientific themes, a record preserved in an unbroken run of proceedings volumes reaching back to 1968. Today the Society supports scientific exchange through its Symposium series, publishes the journal Peptide Science, and presents awards that recognize achievement across the breadth of peptide research.
Founders & Pioneers
The growth of peptide science in the United States was shaped by a generation of researchers whose work defined the field and laid the groundwork for the American Peptide Society.
Saul W. Lande and Boris Weinstein organized the first American Peptide Symposium at Yale in 1968 and edited its inaugural proceedings. Johannes Meienhofer set the scientific tone of the early meetings through his work on peptide synthesis at the Children's Cancer Research Foundation and Harvard Medical School. Murray Goodman, of the University of California, San Diego; Victor J. Hruby, of the University of Arizona; Daniel H. Rich, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Kenneth D. Kopple, of the Illinois Institute of Technology; and Garland R. Marshall, of Washington University in St. Louis, each chaired Symposia or edited their proceedings during the field's formative years.
Several figures from the broader history of peptide chemistry shaped the scientific landscape the Society inherited. Robert Bruce Merrifield developed solid-phase peptide synthesis, the advance that transformed modern peptide chemistry, and received the 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for it. Vincent du Vigneaud had earlier won the 1955 Nobel Prize for the synthesis of the peptide hormones oxytocin and vasopressin. Ralph F. Hirschmann led pioneering work in peptide and medicinal chemistry, including the first organic synthesis of an enzyme. Miklos Bodanszky advanced and standardized synthetic methodology through textbooks and monographs that remain widely used.
Others extended the field's reach. Emil Thomas Kaiser developed semisynthesis and segment-based strategies that linked synthetic chemistry to protein engineering. Isabella Karle established X-ray crystallographic methods that enabled high-resolution structure determination of peptides and other small molecules. Elkan R. Blout conducted early biophysical and conformational studies and later received the U.S. National Medal of Science.
Together these scientists built both the techniques and the community from which the American Peptide Symposium, and ultimately the Society, emerged.
The American Peptide Symposium
The American Peptide Symposium is the Society's flagship event: a biennial meeting that brings together scientists from academic laboratories, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and government institutions. Each meeting pairs plenary and invited lectures with contributed talks, poster sessions, workshops, and industrial exhibitions, and most are organized around a central scientific theme.
From its 1968 origin at Yale, the Symposium has rotated among research centers and conference venues across North America, growing in both scale and breadth. Its themes trace the evolution of the field itself. Early meetings emphasized synthetic methodology, solid-phase synthesis, coupling strategies, and the assembly of increasingly complex sequences. As NMR, crystallography, and computational modeling matured, the focus widened to peptide folding and biomolecular interactions. By the 1990s and 2000s, chemical biology, peptide therapeutics, and native chemical ligation came to the fore, followed more recently by biomaterials, de novo design, and machine-learning approaches to structure prediction and discovery.
Recent meetings reflect that range. The 25th, in 2017 at Whistler, opened with David Baker on de novo design and Samuel Gellman on foldamers. The 26th, in 2019 at Monterey, featured Nobel Laureate Frances Arnold and Helma Wennemers and introduced the Early Career Award Lectureships. The 27th, in 2022 at Whistler and delayed by the pandemic, spotlighted mRNA therapeutics and machine learning. The 28th, in 2023 at Scottsdale, addressed AI-driven discovery and green chemistry. The 29th, in 2025 at San Diego, celebrated the resurgence of peptide therapeutics and materials, with keynotes by Margaret Brimble and Scott Miller.
A complete proceedings volume has been published for every Symposium since 1968.
| # | Year | Location | Chairs | Theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1968 | Yale University, New Haven, CT | Saul W. Lande; Boris Weinstein | Chemistry and Biochemistry |
| 2 | 1970 | Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH | F. Merlin Bumpus | — |
| 3 | 1972 | Children's Cancer Research Foundation, Boston, MA | Johannes Meienhofer | Chemistry and Biology of Peptides |
| 4 | 1975 | The Rockefeller University, New York, NY | Roderich Walter | Peptides: Chemistry, Structure, and Biology |
| 5 | 1977 | University of California, San Diego, CA | Murray Goodman | Peptides |
| 6 | 1979 | Georgetown University, Washington, DC | Erhard Gross | Peptides: Structure and Biological Function |
| 7 | 1981 | University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI | Daniel H. Rich | Peptides: Synthesis, Structure, and Function |
| 8 | 1983 | University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ | Victor J. Hruby | Peptides: Structure and Function |
| 9 | 1985 | University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada | Kenneth D. Kopple; Charles M. Deber | Peptides: Structure and Function |
| 10 | 1987 | Washington University, St. Louis, MO | Garland R. Marshall | Chemistry and Biology |
| 11 | 1989 | The Salk Institute & UC San Diego, San Diego, CA | Jean E. Rivier | Peptides: Chemistry, Structure, and Biology |
| 12 | 1991 | MIT & Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA | John A. Smith | Peptides: Chemistry, Structure, and Biology |
| 13 | 1993 | Edmonton Convention Center, Edmonton, AB, Canada | Robert S. Hodges | Peptides: Chemistry, Structure, and Biology |
| 14 | 1995 | The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH | Pravin T. P. Kaumaya | Peptides: Chemistry, Structure, and Biology |
| 15 | 1997 | Nashville Convention Center, Nashville, TN | James P. Tam | Peptides: Chemistry, Structure, and Biology |
| 16 | 1999 | Minneapolis Convention Center, Minneapolis, MN | George Barany; Gregg B. Fields | Peptides for the New Millennium |
| 17 | 2001 | Town and Country Resort, San Diego, CA | Richard A. Houghten; Michal Lebl | Peptides: The Wave of the Future |
| 18 | 2003 | Boston Marriott Copley Place, Boston, MA | Michael Chorev; Tomi K. Sawyer | Peptide Revolution: Genomics, Proteomics & Therapeutics |
| 19 | 2005 | Town and Country Resort, San Diego, CA | Jeffery W. Kelly; Tom W. Muir | Peptides |
| 20 | 2007 | Palais des Congrès, Montreal, QC, Canada | William D. Lubell; Emanuel H. F. Escher | Peptides for Youth |
| 21 | 2009 | Indiana University, Bloomington, IN | Richard DiMarchi; Hank Mosberg | Peptides: Breaking Away |
| 22 | 2011 | Sheraton San Diego, San Diego, CA | Philip Dawson; Joel Schneider | Peptides: Building Bridges |
| 23 | 2013 | Hilton Waikoloa Village, Waikoloa, HI | David Lawrence; Marcey Waters | Peptides Across the Pacific |
| 24 | 2015 | Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, FL | Ved Srivastava; Andrei Yudin | Enabling Peptide Research from Basic Science to Drug Discovery |
| 25 | 2017 | Whistler Conference Centre, Whistler, BC, Canada | Jonathan Lai; John Vederas | New Heights in Peptide Research |
| 26 | 2019 | Monterey Conference Center, Monterey, CA | Paramjit Arora; Anna Mapp | Catch the New Wave of Peptide Science |
| 27 | 2022 | Whistler Conference Centre, Whistler, BC, Canada | Mark D. Distefano; Les Miranda | Peptide Science at the Summit |
| 28 | 2023 | Westin Kierland Resort, Scottsdale, AZ | David Chenoweth; Robert Garbaccio | At the Peptide Frontier |
| 29 | 2025 | Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina, San Diego, CA | Jean Chmielewski; Wendy Hartsock; Eileen Kennedy | Peptides Rising |
| 30 | 2027 | Boston, MA | Krishna Kumar; Florence Brunel | Peptide Revolution: Connecting Chemistry, Biology, and Beyond (upcoming) |
Awards
The American Peptide Society administers several awards that recognize achievement in peptide chemistry, chemical biology, biophysics, and related fields. Award lectures are presented at each American Peptide Symposium and span every stage of a scientific career.
R. Bruce Merrifield Award. Honors lifetime achievement in peptide science. It commemorates Merrifield's development of solid-phase peptide synthesis, the method that transformed modern peptide research.
Vincent du Vigneaud Award. Recognizes mid-career researchers whose work has advanced peptide chemistry and biology, in areas such as design, biosynthesis, and structural characterization. Two du Vigneaud lectures are typically featured at each Symposium. Recent recipients include Marcey Waters, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Helma Wennemers, of ETH Zürich, in 2023, and Dek Woolfson, of the University of Bristol, and Ashraf Brik, of Technion, in 2025.
Murray Goodman Scientific Excellence and Mentorship Award. Recognizes scientific accomplishment together with a sustained record of mentorship and service to the peptide research community.
Rao Makineni Lectureship Award. Highlights innovative contributions with clear scientific impact, presented as a lecture on recent advances in synthesis, therapeutics, biomolecular engineering, or mechanism.
Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry. Honors significant contributions to peptide synthesis, structure, and function, reflecting Hirschmann's influence on the modern field.
Early Career Lectureship. Recognizes promising investigators in the early stages of their careers, highlighting emerging work in new synthetic methods, structural studies, computational design, and biomedical applications.
The Society also supports students and postdoctoral researchers through poster competitions, oral presentations, and travel awards that foster early-career participation in the Symposium.
Leadership & Award Recipients
Governance
The American Peptide Society is governed by elected officers who guide its scientific and administrative activities. Its leadership includes a President, President-Elect, Secretary, and Treasurer, together with a Council drawn from academic, industrial, and government research. Council members serve fixed, rotating terms and shape long-term planning, scientific programming, membership activities, and the administration of the Society's awards. The current President is Anna Mapp.
Award recipients and leaders
Across its history, the Society has been shaped by researchers whose work has defined peptide chemistry, structural biology, and chemical biology. Many have served as Symposium chairs, plenary lecturers, award recipients, or editors of proceedings volumes.
Among its award recipients are Lila Gierasch, honored with both the du Vigneaud and Merrifield Awards for protein folding and peptide conformation; Horst Kessler, recipient of the du Vigneaud and Merrifield Awards for cyclic peptide design and NMR methodology; Wilfred van der Donk, du Vigneaud Award recipient in 2017 for lanthipeptide biosynthesis; Alanna Schepartz, Hirschmann Award recipient in 2020 for β-peptide chemistry and cell-permeable miniature proteins; Helma Wennemers and Marcey Waters, joint du Vigneaud Award recipients in 2023 for peptide catalysis and molecular recognition; and Dek Woolfson, du Vigneaud Award recipient in 2025 for de novo design. Jeffery W. Kelly, of Scripps Research, received the Hirschmann Award for his work on protein folding.
Marcey Waters also served as APS President from 2017 to 2019. Other researchers who have led the Society through Symposium chairmanship, invited lectures, or award participation include David J. Craik, Ronald T. Raines, Philip E. Dawson, Jean Chmielewski, Andrei Yudin, Paramjit Arora, Anna Mapp, Mark D. Distefano, and Les Miranda.
The Society Today
The American Peptide Society today sustains a broad program of publishing, collaboration, and international engagement.
Publications
The Society's official journal, Peptide Science, is published by Wiley and carries original research and reviews on peptide chemistry, synthesis, structure, and biological function, work that bridges chemical, biological, and computational approaches. Alongside the journal, the Society maintains an unbroken series of Symposium proceedings reaching back to 1968, a continuous record of the field's development across nearly six decades.
International engagement
Peptide research is global, and the Society's activities reflect it. APS maintains longstanding ties with peptide organizations in Europe, Asia, and Australia, and has periodically hosted joint meetings with the International Peptide Symposium. Through the International Peptide Liaison, a consortium coordinating regional and national peptide societies, APS helps plan the International Peptide Symposium and pursues cooperative scientific activities with partner organizations worldwide. Its members take part in international conferences as plenary speakers, invited lecturers, session organizers, and collaborators.
Affiliations
The Society is a member of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, FASEB, a coalition representing more than 130,000 researchers across the biomedical and life sciences.
Through these activities, its journal, its proceedings, its awards, and its flagship Symposium, the American Peptide Society continues to serve as a central forum for peptide science.