A simple splice in water joined short peptoid chains, a step toward much longer peptoids
Photo: Image: BioLabs Research
Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry reported on 2 November 2026 that a team working with New York University joined two short peptoid chains head to tail using native chemical ligation, a splicing reaction that runs in water and leaves no change in the backbone at the seam. Peptoids are peptide-like chains whose side chains sit on the nitrogen instead of the carbon. The building blocks, 14 to 20 building blocks (residues) long, were made on the Foundry's automated synthesizers. When an unexpected extra mass appeared, the team traced it to a side reaction at the first residue of the chain, seen only when a particular side chain sits in that position. The joined chains still assembled into nanosheets, as the shorter versions do. The work was published in Biochemistry, and a team member says peptoids 100 residues long now look within reach. These are lab chemistry results only.
