Production of Cyclic Macrocycle Library for Rapid High Throughput Evaluations in Aqueous Medium

Background:

Cyclic peptides are a class of molecules with important biological activities that could provide substantial medical benefit. Cyclic peptides are often used to develop therapeutic agents and biochemical tools. Unfortunately, the most common method for producing cyclic peptides is slow, tedious, and expensive. This method involves multiple steps that start with linear peptide precursors. The expense and difficulty in generating cyclic peptide candidates for screening substantially hampers the discovery of their potentially beneficial properties. As a consequence, the full potential of cyclic peptides for the development of therapies has yet to be realized.

Technology Overview:

This technology rapidly produces cyclic peptide libraries without the need of purification. The technology takes commercially available linear peptides and induces cyclization in the aqueous buffer. Linear peptides are much less expensive to manufacture compared to cyclic peptides, which can cost from 3 to 100 times more. The products produced through this method can be used for evaluation without further elaboration or purification. The size of macrocycles can range from tetrapeptide to much larger cyclic peptides with 12 amino acid residues. This technology will substantially reduce the time and cost for high throughput evaluations of hundreds to thousands of cyclic peptides rapidly.

Advantages:

•    Builds cyclic peptide libraries for quick screening.
•    Avoids lengthy and tedious purification after the production of cyclic peptides and congeners.

Applications:

The primary application for this technology is the production of cyclic peptides for potential therapeutic agents.

Intellectual Property Summary:

Patent Pending

Stage of Development:

TRL 3 - Experimental proof of concept

Licensing Status:

This technology is available for licensing.

Licensing Potential:

This technology would be of interest to anyone involved in the development of cyclic peptides and therapeutics, including:
•    Pharmaceutical manufacturers.
•    Hospitals.
•    Health care providers.
•    Universities.
•    Medical research laboratories.