Passion for peptides – The people behind Pepscan

“The therapeutic peptide pipeline under one roof”

Pepscan’s team of around 40 entrepreneurial, specialized scientists focus their daily work on enabling breakthroughs in life sciences. Eline Fijlstra joined Pepscan in 2017 as one of the technicians in the epitope mapping group. She is now a technician and analyst in the peptide discovery group.

“After finishing my Bachelor’s in Biology and Medical Laboratory Research at HAN University of Applied Sciences, I found at Pepscan’s planned peptide discovery group the perfect place to combine my experience with bacteriophages and molecular biology. I first joined my epitope mapping colleagues and supported them in their work to define antibody epitopes using our peptide array platform.”

Peptide discovery

“Once it became possible, I joined my colleague Michael Goldflam, Director of Peptide Discovery, in setting up our peptide discovery platform and laboratory. I’ve always enjoyed having variety in laboratory and desk work, and this came together nicely as I was organizing and optimizing the set-up of our technology, like the peptide discovery plates, and procedures.”

Pepscan’s phage display technology enables the discovery of highly constrained peptides with enhanced affinity, selectivity and proteolytic stability. Phage display facilitates the de novo discovery of peptides against any target of interest by exploring DNA-encoded peptide libraries. This powerful technology can screen libraries of billions of different peptides in less than four weeks.

From discovery to synthesis for clinical trials

“What I love about my job is that we are active from discovery to synthesis for clinical trials. Pepscan is the therapeutic peptide pipeline under one roof! It is great to hear what colleagues are working on in other groups and to exchange experiences so that we can learn from each other. We all share a passion for peptides and a dedication to our common goal: to enable breakthroughs for life by mastering peptides.”