This volume contains the proceedings of the Second International Peptide Symposium and the Seventeenth American Peptide Symposium, held on 9-14 June, 2001, at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego, California. The biennial meeting was held under the auspices of the American Peptide Society. In addition to the main Symposium, we were honored to have the Merrifield Satellite Symposium, honoring Bruce Merrifield's accomplishments on his 80th birthday. Over 1250 participants from around the world attended the lectures, posters, and exhibits. Reflecting the international nature of the Symposium, there were participants from 37 countries in attendance. In addition to the 75 plenary lectures, there were over 575 poster presentations, and 70 commercial exhibits as well as booths from the American, Australian, Chinese, European, and Japanese Peptide Societies. These proceedings include plenary lectures and oral and poster presentations collected from a wide diversity of topics providing a truly comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the field of peptide science. This publication contains essential reference information for researchers active in peptide science.

The Fifteen American Peptide Symposium (15APS) was held in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 14-19, 1997. This biennial meeting was jointly sponsored by the American Peptide Society and Vanderbilt University. The attendance of 1,081 participants from 37 countries was lower than the two previously held Symposia. However, the number of participating countries was the largest. Thus, it was gratifying to see that this meeting retained both its international flavor and participant loyalty at a time when there are many more symposia held each year on similar subjects. The scientific program, thanks to the insights and efforts of the Program Committee as well as Dr. Peter Schiller, the President of the American Peptide Society, was extraordinarily rich, diverse, and exciting. It was comprised of 124 oral and 550 poster presentations. Three prominent format changes were installed. First, the Symposium started on Saturday instead of Sunday. Second, the program opened on Saturday afternoon with a Mini-symposium by the Young Investigators to give them an early start and attention. Finally, 40 short and definitive reports were given in two parallel sessions. The expanded format permitted an unprecedented number of lectures and enabled wider participation by the attending delegates.

Faculties, publications and doctoral theses in departments or divisions of chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry and pharmaceutical and/or medicinal chemistry at universities in the United States and Canada.