Morten P. Meldal

Morten P. Meldal (born 1954 in Denmark) is a Danish chemist. He is a professor of Chemistry at University of Copenhagenin Copenhagen, Denmark. He is best known for developing the CuAAC-click reaction Meldal first received a B.S. degree and then a Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from DTU; his Ph.D. work focused on the synthetic chemistry of oligosaccharides. From 1983-1988 he worked as independent research associate in organic chemistry at DTU and University of Copenhagen. He then (1985–1986) performed postdoctoral work at Cambridge University; he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Medical Research Council Center, Laboratory of Molecular Biology. In 1996 he was appointed adjunct professor at Danish Technical University. Since 1998 he has led the synthesis group in the Department of Chemistry of the Carlsberg Laboratoryand since 1997 head of the SPOCC Center.

In Meldal's early career he developed several technological techniques and instruments for peptide synthesis. He developed the multiple column synthesis used in peptide and organic synthesis instrumentation as well as for assembly large split-mix libraries. Later on Meldal first presented the (cycloaddition) of acetylenes and azides used in peptide and protein conjugations, in polymers and in Material sciences. Meldal's group has then showed this reaction to be completely orthogonal to the majority of functional group chemistries. Continuing they developed solid supports that have facilitated the merger of solid phase peptide- and peptide-organic chemistry with solid phase chemical biology and protein chemistry.

More recently Meldal has developed an optical encoding technique and has been focused on the merger of organic chemistry and peptide chemistry on solid support. He has devised a range of novel methods on the generation of N-acyl iminium ions which combinatorial libraries of these compounds have generated and screened for active GPCR substances in cell-based on-bead screening.

• Meldal developed a large range of chemical technologies based on temporary protection schemes for glycopeptide synthesis, including linked glycopeptides. These were used in e. g. characterization of the immunological response to cancer- related mucins. A concept of using template based glycopeptide mimetics is currently employed in biochemical studies.
• Developed solid phase synthesis of combinatorial libraries of peptides containing phosphinic acid as transition state analogs and identified nanomolar selective inhibitors for metalloproteases involved in osteoclast migration towards the control of osteoporosis.
• Developed the concept of organozymes and peptide-based cage-like receptors that recognize, e.g., sugar water.
• Also introduced a solid phase synthesis technique that allowed clean activation.

• received Kirstine Meyers Award (Denmark) (1988)
• received the Danish Society of Chemistry Award (1990)
• received a research award from the EU-Science Program (Belgium) (1992)
• received a travel award from NATO (1992)
• received a research award from the Mitzutani Foundation (Japan) (1995)
• received the NKT Award from the Chemical Society of Denmark (1996)
• received the Leonidas Zervas Award from the European Peptide Society (1996)
• received a research award from the EU-INCO-DC program (1996)
• received the Niels Bjerrum Gold Medal in Chemistry (1997)
• received a research award from the Danish National Research Foundation (1997)
• received a research award from the Danish Cancer Society (1997)
• presented the Bjerrum-Brønsted-Lang Lecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (1999)
• received the Ralph F. Hirschmann Award in Peptide Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (2009)
• Co-founder and chairman of the Society of Combinatorial Sciences (SCS)
• member of the Danish National Academy
• member of the editorial board of Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry
• member of the editorial board of ChemBioChem journal

His group have published over 250 articles and have filed 20 patents covering areas both in organic and bioorganic chemistry.