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Molecular basics

Start with the signals your body already uses

Peptides are short chains of amino acids that act like instructions. This series builds from simple receptor fit to the people and patterns that made peptide science visible.

How this series builds

01Define the signal
02Follow receptor fit
03Meet the discovery trail

Read the peptide foundations

  1. 01Peptides are the body's messenger moleculesThe body assigns every peptide to one of three jobs. Understand the three jobs, and how peptide medicine works stops being a mystery.
  2. 02Peptides work like one key in one lockPeptides work by fitting specific receptors and then triggering a cellular response. That receptor-fit model explains why one peptide can regulate hunger while another affects pain, immunity, or blood sugar.
  3. 03Twenty amino acids build every peptide the body makesThe body uses just 20 amino acids to build every peptide signal it runs. Think of these 20 amino acids as letters in an alphabet.
  4. 04Peptides reach a wound before the immune system doesCut your finger. Blood pools. Pain registers. Within seconds, the body deploys microscopic proteins to hunt bacteria and prevent infection. These proteins are peptides.
  5. 05Dorothy Hodgkin mapped insulin's structure by hand, over 34 yearsEvery peptide medicine on the market today rests on precise molecular mapping. You have to know exactly where the atoms sit in a hormone before you can build a therapy around it.