Moreover, there is now one instrument on the market, with the possibility of others to come, that allows control of reaction temperature and atmosphere. Such instruments are intended as general-purpose organic synthesizers capable of stringing together a variety of reactants, not only for peptide synthesis but also for oligonucleotide synthesis or for use in combinatorial chemistry, in which complex multifunctional molecules are built up from a pantheon of monomers.
The array of choices in peptide synthesizers is almost dizzying, especially when one considers that only about 1,000 automated synthesizers are currently installed and about 200 to 300 are sold each year, according to industry sources. Industry insiders report that today there are five major manufacturers of peptide synthesizers in terms of sales, with an aggregate of 10 individual units on the market and two more soon to be released. Each product is intended for a different type of user. They ...
