The American Peptide Society, APS, a nonprofit scientific and educational organization founded in 1990, provides a forum for advancing and promoting knowledge of the chemistry and biology of peptides. The approximately fifteen-hundred members of the Society come from North America and from more than forty-five other countries throughout the world. Establishment of the American Peptide Society was a result of the rapid worldwide growth that has occurred in peptide-related research, and of the increasing interaction of peptide scientists with virtually all fields of science.

Peptides are chains of amino acid residues with remarkable biological functions, ranging from hormonal regulation to antibiotic activities. Members of the American Peptide Society are involved in research in academia, industry, and government, covering all aspects of peptide chemistry, biology, and pharmaceutical science. Research topics include synthesis of biologically important targets, isolation and characterization of new products, structure-activity relationship studies, molecular diversity, de novo design, drug delivery, and the discovery of new pharmaceutical agents.