Research peptides, evidence, methods and laboratory practice
We read the papers and report what follows from them, along with what does not.
Evidence reviews & mechanisms
The Science
Research 20 October 2026
The fatty acid trick: how a peptide borrows albumin's half-life
Two of the compounds in this catalogue carry a fatty acid chain that has nothing to do with binding their receptor. It is there to attach the molecule to a plasma protein, a design first proven in insulin and now standard across the incretin class.
3 min read · 2 sources
Research 18 October 2026
The concentration in the dish and the exposure in the body
A compound that works at 10 µM in culture has demonstrated something real. Whether that something can happen in an organism is a separate question, and it turns on a comparison most write-ups never make: what concentration the tissue would actually see.
3 min read · 2 sources
Research 14 October 2026
Selectivity is a ratio, not a property
A compound described as selective for a receptor is being described relative to something, usually its nearest relatives, sometimes only the targets somebody bothered to test. The word carries no meaning until you know the comparison, and in peptide pharmacology the comparison is often the whole story.
3 min read · 1 sources
Research 8 October 2026
Why a mouse dose in mg/kg does not become a human dose
The most common arithmetic error in secondary coverage of preclinical work is also the easiest to make: take the milligrams per kilogram used in rodents, multiply by body weight, and present the result as a human figure. The conversion does not work that way, and the reason is a well-documented scaling relationship.
3 min read · 1 sources
Reconstitution, storage & methods
The Lab
Guide 22 October 2026
Does it matter that the parcel was warm?
Peptides are stored cold and shipped, more often than not, at whatever temperature the courier network happens to provide. The gap between those two facts worries people more than it should, and less than it should, depending entirely on which form the material is in.
3 min read · 2 sources
Basics 16 October 2026
Reading a peptide name: what Ac-, -NH₂, D- and Aib actually tell you
Peptide names look like typographic noise until you notice that almost every character is doing work. The prefixes, suffixes and odd abbreviations are a compact description of how the molecule was engineered, and they are the fastest way to tell two similar-sounding products apart.
3 min read · 1 sources
Basics 12 October 2026
What a cloudy vial is telling you
Haze in a reconstituted peptide is usually read as a dissolving problem and treated with patience or force. It is more often aggregation, a distinct physical process, largely one-way, and one that quietly changes how much active material an experiment actually received.
3 min read · 2 sources
Basics 10 October 2026
EC50, IC50, Ki: what a potency number is telling you
Potency figures are the most quoted and least examined numbers in peptide literature. Each answers a narrow, well-defined question, and the most common error is treating a value measured under one set of conditions as a property of the molecule.
3 min read · 1 sources
How these pieces are written
Every figure is cited
Every number comes from a published study and carries a DOI link. Figures are reused only from openly licensed papers, always with a credit line.
Including what is not known
We state where the evidence stops, how many studies ran in humans versus animals, and what a given paper does not settle.
Not medical advice
We describe these materials as reagents for in-vitro laboratory research. We do not suggest any use in humans or animals.