The story

Anna Catania and James Lipton spent the 1990s showing that alpha-MSH calms inflammation in fever, infection and the gut. They cut the hormone into pieces and found that the tiny tail, KPV, still worked. Japanese researchers including Takashi Ichiyama showed how alpha-MSH acts on brain and immune cells. In 2008 Didier Merlin's team at Emory found that KPV enters gut cells through PepT1 and calms colitis, and a German team in Munster confirmed it in mouse bowel disease. Chinese researchers working with Merlin later packed KPV into nanoparticles that home to inflamed colon tissue.