About CRB

Amino Acid Adventure

A play on peptides…or amino acids.

As I was creating the new website for Cambridge Research Biochemicals (CRB), my fifth in 22 years, I was keen to add a little twist of amusement and play on words with the building blocks of life, amino acids – pertinent to both peptides and antibodies both close to our heart here at CRB.

I have always enjoyed the nomenclature of chemistry and especially amino acids. I remember learning all the single and three letter codes of amino acids when I first started at CRB sales department in 1994. The complexity of the amino acids are pared down considerably when reduced to 3 then 1 letter codes and learning the phonetic alphabet was a must when taking down peptide sequences over the phone in the early nineties before computers and emails had arrived. A is for Ala is for Alanine is for Alpha and Y is for Tyr is for Tyrosine is for Yankee etcetera.

I am interested in design and modern art and have loved that the RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) have embraced art as well as chemistry for many years. They have taken the opportunity to reinvigorate the Periodic Table many times and purport a sense of beauty and insightful design to their website and teaching aids. The Periodic Table has become a brand in its own right with tea-towels, mugs, and greeting cards now cleverly adorned with the elements.

So with both of these ‘elements’ in mind I took to decorating our reception with peptide and antibody molecules and our Peptide Assembly Laboratory with the twenty naturally occurring amino acids – this serves as bespoke wallpaper and a useful teaching aid to our annual students as well as an instant indication of what we do for visitors.

For the outside world, our website meets and greets a lot more people and for you I have added in the 3-letter amino acid codes buried in the graphic title pages and in some of the website content. Some amino acids proved easier than others, like Pro (Proline) compared to Arg (Arginine) whilst some amino acids just seemed impossible!

Please enjoy our new website and the amino acid trail. if you would like to let us know how many of the twenty amino acids you found or how many 3-letter amino acids you can find altogether on our website we would love to hear from you aaa@crbdiscovery.com

Thank you for taking our Amino Acid Adventure!

Emily Humphrys

Commercial Director

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