Re-imagining Peptide Synthesis

To develop technology capable of biopharmaceutical production via organic chemical processing, at lower cost and with greater reliability than biological production.

The project will create a radical new technology for the synthetic manufacture of peptides and proteins. These will be created through sequential (iterative) addition of AA building blocks or AA fragments in the liquid phase, and, crucially, purification at each stage will continue in the liquid phase by organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN). The growing peptide attached to a nanostar macromolecular construct will be selectively retained by the OSN membranes, while excess building blocks and other debris are removed by permeation through the membrane. This new filtration technology will allow all the benefits of liquid phase synthesis to accrue while providing facile separation.