The story

In 1966 Allan Goldstein and Abraham White isolated thymosin, a mix of peptides from the calf thymus. In 1981 Teresa Low and Goldstein read the full 43 amino acid sequence of thymosin beta-4. In 1992 Dan Safer's team showed it is the main protein holding actin ready inside cells. Hynda Kleinman and Gabriel Sosne at the US National Institutes of Health then showed it heals skin, cornea and heart. Chinese teams later mapped its small piece Ac-SDKP and its power to stop scarring, and German doping labs named the Ac-LKKTETQ fragment found in TB-500.