Microwave-assisted synthesis of difficult and long peptides
Lauge Schaffer, PhD, Sr. Principal Scientist, Diabetes Protein Engineering, Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark

Although standard Fmoc-based peptide synthesis has become both very accessible and very affordable, its usefulness is in some cases diminished in the case of long peptides or peptides with a high propensity for aggregation. The advent of microwave-assisted synthesis has increased the number of peptides for which this synthesis strategy is appropriate. We have used the Liberty system for the complete synthesis of peptides which would previously only have been available through more complicated ligation or fragment condensation strategies. Also, synthesis of "difficult" peptides and various strategies for synthesis of branched peptides will be discussed.