SciCafe: The Peptide Boom

Cullman Hall of the Universe
Enter at 81st Street.

SciCafe is 21+ and free with RSVP.

Drinks available for purchase, including soda, beer, wine, and a specialty cocktail.

Peptides are in our bodies, in our pharmacies, and increasingly in the news. These short chains of amino acids help regulate nearly every part of how our bodies work, and insulin, one of the first peptide medicines, has been saving lives for a century. Now peptides are everywhere, from weight-loss drugs to the unregulated products showing up in supplement shops and on bodega shelves. So why the sudden craze?

Join chemists Anna Mapp, professor at the University of Michigan and president of the American Peptide Society, and Paramjit Arora, professor at New York University and immediate past president of the American Peptide Society, for a conversation about what peptides are, why drug companies once passed them over in favor of small molecules, and why they’re now one of the fastest-growing areas in medicine.

Come curious, and leave with a better understanding of how peptides affect our bodies.

ASL interpretation is available for this program. Please email [email protected] to reserve seats in our ASL section.

Resources for SciCafe’s Frequent Geeks

Quick Pick

The “miracle” discovery that reversed the diabetes death sentence

Big Bite

A Peptide, a Secretive Scientist, and a Debate Over Evidence

Deep Dive

Proteomimetic Strategy for the Modulation of Intrinsically Disordered Protein MYC