Meldal developed several technological techniques and instruments for peptide synthesis near the start of his career. He developed the multiple-column synthesis used in peptide and organic synthesis instruments, as well as for assembling large split-mix libraries. He first presented the cycloaddition of acetylenes and azides used in peptide and protein conjugations, in polymers and in material sciences. Meldal's group has then showed this reaction to be orthogonal to the majority of functional group chemistries.[9]
More recently Meldal has developed an optical encoding technique[10] and has focused on the merger of organic chemistry and peptide chemistry on solid support. He has devised a range of novel methods for the generation of N-acyl iminium ions in which combinatorial libraries of these compounds are generated and screened for substances with activity toward G protein-coupled receptors in cell-based on-bead screening.[11]
In 2019, Meldal co-founded the company Betamab Therapeutics ApS, based on the concept of beta-bodies, i.e. peptide mimics of antibodies.[12] The company closed in 2021.[13]
^Tornøe, C.W. and Meldal, M., Peptidotriazoles: Copper(I)-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloadditions on solid-phase. In: Lebl, M., Houghten, R.A. (Eds.), American Peptide Society and Kluwer Academic Publishers, San Diego, 2001, pp. 263–4.
^Yan, Bing; Czarnik, Anthony W., eds. (4 December 2001). "five". Optimization of Solid-Phase Combinatorial Synthesis (1 ed.). United States: CRC Press. p. 408. ISBN978-0-8247-0654-8. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 5 April 2014. and Meldal, M., Peptidotriazoles on solid-phase.
^Rostovtsev, Vsevolod V.; Green, Luke G; Fokin, Valery V.; Sharpless, K. Barry (2002). "A Stepwise Huisgen Cycloaddition Process: Copper(I)-Catalyzed Regioselective "Ligation" of Azides and Terminal Alkynes". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 41 (14): 2596–2599. doi:10.1002/1521-3773(20020715)41:14<2596::aid-anie2596>3.0.co;2-4. PMID12203546.
^Rademann, Jorg (29 May 1999). "SPOCC: A Resin for Solid-Phase Organic Chemistry and Enzymatic Reactions on Solid Phase". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 23 (121): 5459–5466. doi:10.1021/ja984355i.
^Steinhagen, Max; Holland-Nell, Kai; Meldal, Morten; Beck-Sickinger, Annette G. (2011). "Simultaneous 'One Pot' Expressed Protein Ligation and CuI-Catalyzed Azide/Alkyne Cycloaddition for Protein Immobilization". ChemBioChem. 12 (16): 2426–2430. doi:10.1002/cbic.201100434. PMID21901810. S2CID44986511.
^Hu, Hongxia; Nikitin, Sergei; Berthelsen, Adam Bjørnholdt; Diness, Frederik; Schoffelen, Sanne; Meldal, Morten (2018). "Sustainable Flow Synthesis of Encoded Beads for Combinatorial Chemistry and Chemical Biology". ACS Comb. Sci. 20 (8): 492–498. doi:10.1021/acscombsci.8b00052. PMID29969235. S2CID206543696.
^Diness, Frederik; Beyer, Jürgen; Meldal, Morten (2006). "Solid-Phase Synthesis of Tetrahydro-β-carbolines and Tetrahydroisoquinolines by Stereoselective Intramolecular N-Carbamyliminium Pictet–Spengler Reactions". Chemistry – A European Journal. 12 (31): 8056–8066. doi:10.1002/chem.200600138. PMID16881029.