Peptide Discovery & Research History

Weight Loss & Metabolic

MOTS-c

MOTS-c was discovered in 2015 by Changhan David Lee's team at the University of Southern California, who identified a previously unknown 16-amino-acid peptide encoded within mitochondrial DNA's 12S rRNA gene — a genuine surprise, since mitochondrial DNA wasn't thought to encode signaling peptides at all. The original research question concerned metabolic homeostasis and insulin sensitivity, and the discovery helped establish an entirely new research category: mitochondrial-derived peptides.

Retatrutide

Retatrutide came out of Eli Lilly's incretin-biology research group, the same program that produced tirzepatide. It was designed around 2016–2018 as a triple GIP/GLP-1/glucagon receptor agonist, specifically to add glucagon's energy-expenditure and hepatic lipid-oxidation effects on top of existing dual-agonist approaches. First-in-human research began in 2019.

GHRH & Growth Hormone

CJC-1295

CJC-1295 was developed by the Canadian biotech ConjuChem in the mid-2000s using "Drug Affinity Complex" technology, which binds the molecule to serum albumin in the bloodstream to extend GHRH's natural half-life from minutes to several days. A 2006 pharmacokinetics paper co-authored by researcher Lawrence Frohman documented this extended-duration effect.

Ipamorelin

Ipamorelin was developed by Novo Nordisk in Denmark in the late 1990s and first published by Raun and colleagues in 1998. It was purpose-built to solve a known problem with earlier growth-hormone secretagogues like GHRP-6 and hexarelin — unwanted spikes in cortisol, ACTH, and prolactin — making it one of the first compounds engineered specifically for growth-hormone-axis selectivity.

Tesamorelin

Tesamorelin was developed by Montreal-based Theratechnologies specifically to research HIV-associated lipodystrophy, a disfiguring fat-redistribution side effect of antiretroviral therapy that became a significant clinical problem in the late 1990s. It's the one peptide in this catalogue with a specific named regulatory approval elsewhere — the US FDA approved it (as Egrifta) for that indication in November 2010.

Healing & Recovery

BPC-157

BPC-157's history traces to Predrag Sikirić, a University of Zagreb medical student who, in 1975, hypothesized that the stomach must produce a self-protective compound of its own. His research group went on to isolate the pentadecapeptide from gastric juice, publishing the landmark paper in 1991 and formally characterizing it in 1993 — the same year Croatian pharmaceutical company PLIVA licensed it for further study.

TB-500

TB-500 traces back to thymosin beta-4, first isolated from bovine thymus tissue in 1981 by Allan Goldstein and Teresa Low. NIH-funded research through the 1980s and 1990s established the parent molecule as a G-actin-sequestering protein involved in wound healing; TB-500 itself is a shorter synthetic fragment developed later to capture the same actin-binding activity in a smaller molecule.

KPV

KPV's anti-inflammatory activity emerged from 1980s research into alpha-MSH fragments, associated with researchers Anna Catania and James Lipton at Weill Cornell, which found this minimal fragment retained anti-inflammatory effects independent of alpha-MSH's pigmentation activity. A widely cited 2008 study from Emory University (Dalmasso et al.) extended that work specifically into gut-inflammation research.

GHK-Cu

GHK-Cu was discovered by Dr. Loren Pickart at UCSF in 1973, while he was investigating why aged liver tissue responded differently than young tissue when exposed to human plasma. By 1977 he had isolated the active component as a copper-bound tripeptide. The original research question was about tissue aging, not skin — the wound-healing and dermal research GHK-Cu is best known for today came later.

KLOW Blend & TB-500 + BPC-157 Blend

Both blends combine peptides with the independent research histories described above. See KLOW Blend and TB-500 + BPC-157 Blend for current specifications.

Cognitive & Nootropic

Selank

Selank was developed in the 1990s by a research team at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, associated with researcher Nikolai Myasoedov. The team extended the natural immune peptide tuftsin with a stabilizing Pro-Gly-Pro tail to overcome tuftsin's near-instant breakdown in the bloodstream, shifting the original immunological research focus toward anxiolytic and neuromodulatory research.

Semax

Semax was created in 1982 by the same Moscow research group — Nikolai Myasoedov and Igor Ashmarin — using the same Pro-Gly-Pro stabilization approach applied to a fragment of ACTH already known to have nootropic effects independent of ACTH's hormonal activity, but which degraded within minutes in its natural form.

Longevity & Cellular Health

Epitalon

Epitalon's research program began in the 1970s under Vladimir Khavinson at what became the St. Petersburg Institute of Bioregulation and Gerontology, built on the idea that individual organs contain their own short regulatory peptides. Epitalon is a synthetic version of a natural pineal-gland peptide, and the original research focus — aging and circadian regulation — remains its primary research area today.

SS-31

SS-31 was discovered by Hazel Szeto and Peter Schiller in the early 2000s while searching for opioid-receptor-targeted pain-relief compounds — mitochondrial research wasn't the original goal at all. They found that one lead compound concentrated inside mitochondria and bound to cardiolipin, an inner-membrane lipid, which redirected the entire research program toward mitochondrial protection.