In 1984, Robert Bruce Merrifield a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles (Ph.D. 1949) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Merrifield developed a method for avoiding significant impurities in the final product that result from a relatively small amount of impurities in each step. If a chain-formed molecule in solid form is attached to the first amino acid, impurities can be rinsed away between every step. This process can be carried out mechanically.