Peptide research guides
16 reference guides
Reference guides for the questions researchers ask before they reach a specific compound — most of them about how to read the documentation that comes with it. Each links through to the per-compound research reference pages and identifier data.
Reading analytical documentation
What a Certificate of Analysis establishes, what each measurement can and cannot show, and how to tell a report you can rely on from one that is decorative.
How to read a peptide Certificate of Analysis
A section-by-section walkthrough of a peptide COA: identity, purity, net peptide content, water, counterion and batch traceability — and what each omits.
What ≥98% HPLC purity actually means
HPLC purity is a relative area percentage at one wavelength under one method. What the number measures, the four things it cannot see, and how to…
Identity vs purity: the two questions a COA must answer
Identity asks whether the right molecule is present; purity asks how much of the sample it is. A sample can pass one and fail the other.
What mass spectrometry tells you about a peptide
ESI and MALDI, monoisotopic versus average mass, multiply-charged ions and deconvolution — how a mass spectrum establishes peptide identity, and its limits.
Nine red flags on a peptide Certificate of Analysis
Batch numbers that do not match, missing methods, unlabelled chromatograms and impossible purity figures: nine failure signals to check on a peptide COA.
Why batch numbers matter
A batch number connects a Certificate of Analysis to the vial in your hand. How lot traceability works and why one site-wide COA is not the…
Laboratory handling
Storage, solvents, presentation formats and the arithmetic that turns a vial into a solution of known concentration.
Peptide storage and stability
Why lyophilised peptides are stored at -20 °C, which residues degrade first, how freeze-thaw and moisture cause loss, and what limits a reconstituted stock.
Molar mass and solution concentration
Converting between mg, mg/mL and molar concentration for a peptide — and why net peptide content, not the vial label, is the mass the calculation needs.
Bacteriostatic water: what it is and why it is used
Bacteriostatic water is sterile water with 0.9% benzyl alcohol as preservative. What that changes, how it differs from sterile water, and when to use each.
Lyophilised powder vs pre-mixed solutions
Lyophilised vials and pre-mixed solutions differ in stability, concentration accuracy, verification and shelf life. What each format trades away.
Background and market
How these compounds are made, why prices differ so widely, the UK legal framework, and how to assess a supplier.
What are peptides?
What peptides are, how they differ from proteins, the main mechanism classes, and how peptide research compounds are described. Research use only.
How research peptides are made
Solid-phase peptide synthesis: the coupling cycle, why deletion and truncation sequences arise, and where the trifluoroacetate counterion comes from.
Why peptide prices vary so much
The same peptide can differ tenfold in price between suppliers. The legitimate cost drivers — length, modifications, purification, testing — and the rest.
Are peptides legal in the UK?
The UK legal position on research peptides: the Misuse of Drugs Act, prescription-only medicines, MHRA advertising rules and research-use-only supply.
How to assess a UK research-compound supplier
A due-diligence checklist for UK research-compound suppliers: documentation practice, analytical transparency, legal framing and company identity.
Peptides studied in metabolic and weight research
The peptide classes studied in metabolic and weight research, what the published work actually reports, and the UK regulatory position. Research use only.