Press Release 36/2001

March 5th, 2001

Fifth German Peptide Symposion in Bielefeld
Peptides Regulate Our Well-Being

The University of Bielefeld looks forward to receiving 200 chemists from industry and universities for the 5th German Peptide Symposion which is to be held from March 11th to 14th. The interest of the scientists who congregate on a yearly basis is among other things the research into peptides, proteins, and similar molecules, and into their physiological-biochemical effects.

While peptides are molecules composed from protein elements (amino acids) which are smaller than protein molecules, they offer an immense number of combinatory variations because of their being composed of more than twenty different elements aligned in variable order. They participate in a large number of reactions within the human organism such as growth, differentiation, metabolism, and blood pressure. Familiar examples of peptides are commercially available  products like insulin, somatropin, glucagon, and glutathione. They are being produced as drugs on a large scale in laboratories or production units, or by gene technology, constituting an economic factor of considerable commercial volume.

The 5th peptide symposion organized by the Bielefeld professors Norbert Sewald and Harald Tschesche will be inaugurated at 19.00 hours on March 11th in auditorium 1 of Bielefeld University. There will be a reception for the 200 participants by Eberhard David, mayor of Bielefeld, in the Ravensberger Spinnerei on March 13th.

For further information please contact: Fakultät für Chemie der Universität Bielefeld, Prof. Dr. Harald Tschesche, Tel. 0049 521 106 2081, and Prof. Dr. Norbert Sewald, Tel. 0049 521 106 2051. The program of the 5th Peptide Symposion can be found in the internet under http://oc3web.chemie.uni-bielefeld.de/5ps/deutsch/index/.html