Learn · Guides
The guides, grouped.
25 plain language guides across 4 sections. Foundations covers the vocabulary; family deep dives explain how the major peptide families fit together; mechanism guides cover the concepts every peptide page assumes you know; the regulatory section explains what's for sale, what isn't, and why.
Start here
The basics, in plain language.
If you are new to peptide research, start here. These seven guides cover the vocabulary every other page on Apothify assumes you already know. What a peptide actually is. How to read a certificate of analysis. How to store and reconstitute a compound in a research setting. What the warning levels on each peptide page mean. How to use the Compare tool when you want to put two compounds side by side.
Each guide is a four to five minute read. Together they are the on ramp to the rest of the library. A reader who works through the Foundations section will recognize every term used on a peptide page, know what to look for on a COA, and have enough framing to evaluate any compound in the encyclopedia.
If you only have time for one, start with the pairing of What are peptides? followed by How to read a COA. Those two cover roughly 80% of the questions a first time reader asks. Storage, reconstitution, and the bacteriostatic water guide become relevant once you have a compound in hand. The warning levels and compare guides become relevant the moment you narrow the library down to a specific research area.
A plain language introduction to peptides, how they differ from drugs and proteins, and why researchers study them. Roughly an eight minute read.
What a certificate of analysis is, what it tells you, what it doesn't, and the specific fields to check before you use a research peptide. Seven minute read.
How to store research peptides so they stay stable for the duration of your protocol. Covers lyophilized powder, reconstituted solutions, shipping conditions, and common stability failure modes. Six minute read.
Step by step guide to reconstituting a lyophilized research peptide into a working solution. Covers solvent choice, concentration math, technique, and what to avoid.
What bacteriostatic water is, how it differs from sterile water, when to use each, and how long a reconstituted solution actually lasts.
How Apothify classifies handling risk across the library on a 1 to 3 scale, what each level means, and how to use the warning level when planning a research protocol.
A practical guide to comparing two research peptides on Apothify, what to look at first, what the interaction flags mean, and how to use compare for protocol planning.
Get oriented in a single area
How the major peptide families fit together.
Peptide research is organized into families. Within a family, compounds share a structural lineage, a mechanism, or both. They tend to be studied with the same experimental setups and compared against each other constantly in the literature. Reading a single family overview is the fastest way to understand a hundred individual peptide entries.
These ten guides cover the family deep dives that show up most often in the literature. The GHRH and GHRP growth hormone family (and how they pair). The GLP-1 incretin family driving most current metabolic research. The most cited tissue recovery compounds (BPC-157 and TB-500) with their full regulatory context. The Khavinson bioregulator series. The cosmetic peptide landscape (Argireline, Matrixyl, copper peptides). Antimicrobial peptides like LL-37 and Lactoferrin. The mitochondrial peptide group (Humanin, MOTS-c, SS-31). The carnosine family. The thymic peptides studied in immune research.
These are denser reads than the Foundations guides, closer to fifteen minutes each, because they cover full research families rather than single concepts. The Compare tool is the natural follow up to any family deep dive. Once you understand a family, the most useful thing you can do is line up two members of it on the same page.
Why researchers commonly pair a GHRH analog with a ghrelin receptor agonist, what the two halves do, and how to read the family on Apothify.
A research overview of the incretin peptide family , GLP-1, GIP, glucagon, and the multi receptor agonists Semaglutide, Tirzepatide, Retatrutide, and Liraglutide. Encyclopedia framing only; these are prescription medicines.
Plain language overview of BPC-157, what it is, what mechanisms have been studied, why it is ELEVATED in the Apothify library, and what the published research actually says.
Plain language overview of TB-500, its relationship to Thymosin Beta-4, what the research literature describes, and why the compound is ELEVATED in the Apothify library.
An overview of the Russian peptide bioregulator research tradition, the short peptides Vladimir Khavinson and colleagues described over decades, and how the family is represented in the Apothify library.
A research overview of the cosmetic peptide family , signal peptides, expression line peptides, carrier peptides, neurotransmitter inhibiting peptides , and how the major Apothify entries fit together.
Overview of the cationic antimicrobial peptide family , LL-37, Magainin II, PR-39 , what they do, how they differ, and how the family is represented in the Apothify library.
Overview of mitochondrially encoded peptides , MOTS-c, Humanin, and the SS family , what they do, how they are different from nuclear encoded peptides, and how the family fits in longevity research.
Overview of Carnosine, Anserine, and Acetyl Carnosine , naturally occurring histidine containing dipeptides studied in antioxidant and longevity research.
Overview of the thymic peptide family , Thymosin Alpha-1, Thymalin, Thymogen, Thymopentin, Imunofan , what they do in immune research and how they relate to each other.
Concepts that cut across the library
How peptides actually work, and how they relate.
Once the foundations are clear and the families are understood, the next layer of reading is about mechanism. The actual biology that explains why a given peptide produces the effects it produces in research models. These four guides cover concepts that show up in almost every peptide entry on the site. How growth hormone secretagogues differ from GHRH analogs. What synergy and redundancy mean when researchers pair two compounds. How the pituitary axis is wired. What receptor selectivity actually buys a researcher.
This is the section to read if you find yourself comparing two compounds and want to understand why they are being compared. The receptor selectivity guide explains the difference between a peptide that hits one receptor cleanly versus one that hits five. The synergy and redundancy guide explains why pairing Ipamorelin with CJC-1295 produces a measurably larger growth hormone pulse but pairing GHRP-2 with Hexarelin produces almost no extra effect. The pituitary axis guide is the geography lesson for the whole growth hormone category.
These guides are reference material more than read once material. Researchers come back to the selectivity and synergy guides repeatedly because the concepts apply to every new peptide they read about.
Why GHRH analogs and growth hormone secretagogues (GHRPs and small molecule GHS) are different research tools that engage different receptors, and how to think about the distinction when reading the library.
How to tell when stacking two peptides adds real research signal and when it is just doubling up the same mechanism. Practical decision framework with examples from the Apothify library.
Plain language overview of the hypothalamic pituitary axis, the major releasing and inhibiting hormones, and how the Apothify library entries map onto the axis.
What receptor selectivity means in peptide pharmacology, why selective compounds make better research tools, and how to read selectivity claims on Apothify peptide pages.
Why some peptides are not for sale
The regulatory landscape, explained.
The line between a research peptide and a prescription medicine is regulatory, not scientific. The same compound can be a research product in one context and a prescription drug in another, depending on how the seller represents it and which regulatory body has taken a position. These four guides cover the regulatory landscape that explains why some peptides on Apothify are available to order and others are encyclopedia entries only.
The research vs prescription guide is the overview. It explains the framing that lets a compound exist as a research peptide while a closely related compound is regulated as a drug. The FDA 503A category 2 guide covers the specific compounding pharmacy mechanism that affected BPC-157, TB-500, and other research popular peptides in 2023 and 2024. The WADA prohibited list guide covers the sports doping context that overlaps with research peptide availability for several growth hormone and tissue compounds. The What to ask before ordering guide is the practical checklist that consolidates the others.
These guides are the ones to read before placing an order, especially for any compound flagged as ELEVATED in the library. Apothify's product gate is conservative by design. We list compounds in the encyclopedia for completeness, but we do not sell anything that fails internal compliance review. These four guides explain what that gate actually checks.
Why some peptides are sold for laboratory research only and others are prescription medicines, what the distinction means for the Apothify library, and how to read regulatory status on peptide pages.
What the FDA Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee Category 2 list is, why it matters for the peptide research category, and how it shapes which compounds Apothify offers for sale.
What the World Anti Doping Agency prohibited list is, which peptide families are on it, and what that means for athletes and for researchers working in WADA jurisdiction sports.
A practical checklist for evaluating a research peptide supplier and a specific compound before placing an order. Covers COA review, regulatory status, handling, and the questions that matter most.
