After Ozempic: the revolution in peptide science | Jonathan Long

Health influencers and scientists have both gone crazy for peptides.

The peptide health craze stems from a lot of online hype — centered on gray-market compounds that haven't been rigorously tested in humans and aren't regulated for safety or purity. But among scientists, there is a genuine "revolution" underway — spurred by technological developments revealing an order of magnitude more peptides in our bodies than we ever realized, and by the unexpected and unparalleled success of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic.

To learn more about what’s driving this excitement – and how much of the peptide hype is really worth your attention – we spoke with Stanford biochemist Jonathan Long, an associate professor of pathology at Stanford Medicine, an affiliate of the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, and an Institute Scholar of Stanford Sarafan ChEM-H.

Editor's Note: After we went to press, Colorado biotech Enveda announced promising but early Phase 1 safety results for ENV-308, an oral drug engineered to mimic Lac-Phe — the "exercise in a pill" molecule Long's lab first characterized in 2022. The trial didn't test actual weight-loss or fitness effects, so the real thing isn't here yet — but Long, a scientific advisor to Enveda, calls it "an extremely exciting potential scientific breakthrough." Read more (gizmodo.com/an-exercise-pill-just-cleared-its-…)
Learn more
• Long Lab of Chemical Physiology (longlabstanford.org)
• An ‘Exercise Pill’ Just Cleared Its First Human Test (gizmodo.com/an-exercise-pill-just-cleared-its-…) (Gizmodo, 2026)
• A pill that mimics exercise? Early results on drug designed to maintain both weight loss and muscle mass (statnews.com/2026/08/18/enveda-pill-mimics-exe…) (STAT, 2026)
• Peptides are everywhere. Here’s what you need to know. (technologyreview.com/2026/02/23/1133522/peptid…) (MIT Technology Review, 2026)
• Influencers are promoting peptides for better health. What does the science say? (npr.org/2026/02/23/nx-s1-5716162/peptides-scie…) (NPR, 2026)
• What doctors want patients to know about injectable peptides (ama-assn.org/public-health/prevention-wellness…) (American Medical Association, 2026)
• Why Are People Injecting Themselves with Peptides? (newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/why-are-peop…) (The New Yorker, 2026)
• Peptides are buzzing: But what does the science say? (med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2026/08/peptide…) (Stanford Medicine, 2026)
• Study of pythons’ extreme diet reveals new hunger-curbing molecule (brainresilience.stanford.edu/news/study-python…) (Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, 2026)
• Unlocking the secrets of ketosis (brainresilience.stanford.edu/news/unlocking-se…) (Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, 2024)
• Weight loss caused by common diabetes drug tied to "anti-hunger" molecule in study (med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2024/03/metform…) (Stanford Medicine, 2024)
• Q&A: Unlocking the secrets of taurine in obesity control (brainresilience.stanford.edu/news/qa-unlocking…) (Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, 2024)
• Exercise and the brain (neuroscience.stanford.edu/news/exercise-and-br…) (From Our Neurons to Yours, 2023)
• Lac-Phe mediates the effects metformin on food intake and body weight (nature.com/articles/s42255-024-00999-9) (Nature Metabolism, 2024)
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