The 1977 Nobel Prize in Medicine recognized two breakthroughs: finding the brain's hormone messages and measuring hormones present in tiny amounts. Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally shared half the prize. Rosalyn Yalow received the other half. Their work helps explain where modern hormone peptides came from, but it did not establish today's claims about aging or recovery.
The 1977 Nobel Prize in Medicine: the document and date
The Karolinska Institutet press release carries the dateline “October 1977,” without a day. It credited Guillemin and Schally for discoveries concerning “the peptide hormone production of the brain.” Yalow's half recognized radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones: laboratory tests using antibodies and a radioactive marker to measure tiny amounts. Antibodies are proteins that bind particular targets.
The announcement day was October 13, 1977. Lindau's Yalow profile records her notification that morning. A separate October 17 Congressional Record, on printed page 33893, identifies Thursday, October 13. It also reproduces newspaper coverage from October 14.
A peptide is a short chain of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. A hormone is a chemical messenger. Those definitions matter here: the prize concerned how the body sends and measures messages, rather than a particular medication.
A separate prize, the 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, recognized a method for building peptide chains in the laboratory.
Before the discoveries, the messages were missing
The pituitary, a small gland beneath the brain, releases hormones that help direct other glands. Scientists already suspected that the hypothalamus, the brain's hormone-control region, sent instructions to it. Small connecting blood vessels offered a possible route.
What they lacked was the identity of those instructions. Extracts of animal brain tissue could make pituitary tissue release hormones. That showed something was present, without establishing exactly what it was.
Measurement posed a second problem. Peptide hormones circulate in such small amounts that older tests struggled to distinguish them reliably. Endocrinology, the study of hormones, needed both the messages and a better way to count them.
By October 1977, these discoveries had already reshaped hormone research. The announcement recognized years of work; it did not unveil new laboratory results.
TRH, LHRH and somatostatin made the signals concrete
1969: TRH. Thyrotropin-releasing hormone tells the pituitary to release a signal that stimulates the thyroid, a gland involved in how the body uses energy. It has just three amino acids. Schally and colleagues' 1969 isolation paper, in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, described work with pig hypothalamus tissue. Guillemin's group independently identified the same small messenger.
1971: LHRH. Luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone, also called GnRH or gonadotropin-releasing hormone, prompts the pituitary to release hormones involved in reproduction. Schally and colleagues' isolation paper appeared in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. Identifying the messenger made it possible to study a defined substance instead of a mixed tissue extract.
1973: somatostatin. This hormone slows growth-hormone release. Brazeau, Vale, Guillemin and colleagues reported its isolation from sheep hypothalamus in Science. Their tests included rat and human pituitary tissue, plus living rats. Human tissue in a dish is different from a treatment trial in people.
That last discovery revealed a brake on growth-hormone release. Sermorelin descends from the separate releasing signal found later. The connection is the body's control system; sermorelin itself was not a 1977 Nobel discovery.
What Rosalyn Yalow's radioimmunoassay made measurable
The radioactive marker made a tiny amount of hormone detectable in a laboratory sample. It belonged to the test, not a hormone treatment. Antibody binding gave the measurement its specificity: it could distinguish the target hormone.
Yalow developed the method with Solomon Berson at the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Bronx. Their 1960 Journal of Clinical Investigation paper described measuring the body's own insulin in blood. Insulin is the hormone that helps regulate blood sugar.
The method compared an unknown sample with known amounts of insulin. Insulin in the sample competed with marked insulin for antibody binding. That competition gave researchers a way to calculate how much was present.
The practical advance was enormous: researchers could ask how hormone levels changed, rather than infer everything from an indirect response. Finding a signal and measuring its effect became parts of the same investigation.
From 1982 GHRH to later hormone peptides
1982: Researchers isolated GHRH, growth hormone-releasing hormone, the signal that prompts the pituitary to release growth hormone. That came five years after the Nobel award. The two-team GHRH discovery story explains the original papers and their different contributions.
Sermorelin copies the first 29 amino acids of that hormone. FDA's March 4, 2013 notice records Geref's diagnostic approval in 1990 and treatment approval for children in 1997.
2006: Teichman and colleagues' CJC-1295 trials, in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, studied a modified GHRH signal in healthy adults. They measured hormone changes over 28 and 49 days. Those measurements did not establish longer life or improved recovery.
2009: Both Geref approvals were withdrawn effective June 18, 2009. FDA’s 2013 determination found that the products were not withdrawn from sale for safety or effectiveness reasons.
2010 onward: Tesamorelin, another analogue or modified copy of GHRH, followed a different clinical path. The Egrifta WR label records initial U.S. approval in 2010 and states “Revised: 3/2025.” Its use is reducing excess abdominal fat in adults with HIV-associated lipodystrophy, meaning abnormal fat distribution. It is not indicated for weight-loss management.
Through Promise, tesamorelin is dispensed as a compounded medication, which is different from an FDA-approved product: the formulation offered here is not FDA-approved. A compound's family tree cannot transfer a branded product's evidence to a different preparation.
Where the history meets prescribing today
As of October 1, 2026, the day this article was written, no FDA-approved sermorelin product is currently marketed. Compounded sermorelin is not FDA-approved. CJC-1295 is also not FDA-approved; FDA's assessment dated November 15, 2024 states that none of the five reviewed forms was a component of an approved U.S. drug.
As of October 1, 2026, the day this article was written, an FDA warning letter dated August 24, 2026 identifies an online seller's tesamorelin and tesamorelin/ipamorelin products as unapproved new drugs. The letter concerns those products; it does not withdraw Egrifta's approval. Historical discoveries cannot establish the quality or suitability of an online vial.
As of October 1, 2026, the day this article was written, an August 11, 2026 review in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that claimed recovery benefits of these peptides remain unsubstantiated by current human trials. The review examined existing studies; it was not a new treatment trial. Early hormone measurements and evidence of recovery remain different questions.
CJC-1295 is often discussed alongside ipamorelin, which acts through a different hormone receptor, a cell's signal receiver. Names still need care: CJC-1295 with and without DAC are different forms. DAC is an attachment that binds a carrier protein in blood. Results from the longer-acting trial form cannot simply be assigned to a differently named blend.
What a prescribed route adds
A licensed provider may still prescribe a compounded formulation; that decision is between the patient and the doctor. The useful questions concern the exact ingredient, the evidence for the intended use and the plan for follow-up.
A prescribed route provides a named clinician, a licensed U.S. pharmacy and a way to report side effects. The peptide prescription process explains how those responsibilities connect. At Promise, a licensed provider reviews every request, and not everyone qualifies.
The Nobel history explains why these signals became understandable. A present-day prescription still needs its own reason, its own evidence and someone accountable for reviewing what happens next.
