Protein Mimicry
Proteins play a key role in life. Their role as mediator of key biological functions makes them attractive as therapeutic agents as well as drug targets.
Many proteins exert their biological activity through relatively small regions of their folded surfaces. The challenge is to mimic these bioactive surfaces by much smaller ‘designed’ peptides. Major stumbling blocks for the use of peptides in drug discovery & development have been their inherent metabolic instability and their imperfect resemblance of functional protein surfaces. Both issues are caused by their inability, unlike native proteins, to adopt a well-defined spatial 3D-structure
Pepscan is a leader in the field of protein mimicry. The company has developed a technology platform that allows protein mimicry by design and synthesis of conformationally stabilized peptides with a well-defined 3D spatial structure, resembling the native functional protein surface.
Cornerstone in Pepscan’s platform is a technology called CLIPS (Chemical Linkage of Peptides onto Scaffolds), for the structural fixation of peptides, both applicable to free peptides in solution as well as to surface-bound peptide arrays used for high throughput screening.
Pepscan’s protein mimicry capabilities have opened up new avenues for peptide drug discovery and led to a truly innovative way to unlock the full potential of antibodies against cell membrane integrated receptor targets, such as GPCRs and ion channels