Jean-Alain Fehrentz was born in Nancy, France, in 1955. He received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Nancy in 1983 and his doctor of science degree in 1985 from the University of Montpellier under the supervision of Professor B. Castro. He joined the “CNRS-INSERM Center for Pharmacology Endocrinology” in Montpellier in 1982 and was recruited as a CNRS researcher in 1984. From 1989 to 1992, he worked at Sanofi Recherche in Montpellier looking for HIV protease inhibitors. He joined back the CNRS in 1992 in the group of Professor J. Martinez at the Montpellier Faculty of Pharmacy. His research interests include peptide aldehydes, enzyme inhibitors, peptidomimetics, and heterocycle-based G protein-coupled receptor ligands. He has published more than 150 scientific articles. He is co-inventor of a ghrelin receptor agonist that was approved by the FDA and AEM and marketed as Macrilen for the diagnosis of growth hormone deficiency.