Origins
When was SS-31 created?
The SS in SS-31 is the two chemists who made it. The 31 is where it sat in their series.
The short answer
| Date | The early 2000s |
| Who | Hazel Szeto and Peter Schiller |
| Where | Weill Cornell, New York, and Université de Montréal |
| Origin | Designed, not found — it does not occur naturally in this form. |
Where it came from
Szeto and Schiller had been working on analogues of opioid peptides — short chains with alternating aromatic and basic residues. What they noticed was unrelated to what they had been looking for: some of these compounds crossed cell membranes readily and then concentrated in mitochondria, at concentrations far above the surrounding cytosol.
The reason turned out to be the inner mitochondrial membrane, which carries a distinctive lipid called cardiolipin, and the compounds’ alternating charge pattern suits binding to it. That redirected the whole programme, and the series was pursued for where the molecules went rather than for the receptor work that had started it.
SS-31 is the thirty-first compound in that series. It is a tetrapeptide, and it contains D-arginine and 2,6-dimethyltyrosine — neither of which is a standard amino acid.
Why it is called that
Szeto-Schiller, compound 31. The international nonproprietary name is elamipretide; it has also carried the codes MTP-131 and Bendavia.
Where it stands now
Elamipretide received accelerated approval in the United States in September 2025, sold as Forzinity, for a rare inherited mitochondrial condition. It is not approved in New Zealand, and material supplied for laboratory work is not the approved product.
What this page does not say
Nothing above is a statement about what SS-31 does in a body, and none of it is guidance on use. A compound’s history is a record of laboratories and dates; it is not evidence for anything, and the fact that a programme was looking for something is not a finding that it was found.
More on SS-31
What is SS-31? · The full timeline · SS-31 — sizes and prices
