Date: 15 October 2026 | Category: Headline News, News
Proteins can form complex structures because their amino-acid sequence precisely controls how they fold and assemble. Recreating this level of molecular control synthetically could enable sustainable, biodegradable materials with tunable properties, but producing such systems efficiently and at scale remains challenging. Collagen is an important model for this challenge because its repetitive peptide sequence gives rise to a strong hierarchical structure and it already has applications ranging from wound healing and tissue engineering to biomaterials.
At the Aachen-Maastricht Institute for Biobased Materials (AMIBM), Maastricht University, Dr Jordy Saya, Assistant Professor, and his team study collagen-mimetic peptides as part of their broader research into how peptide sequence controls structure and material properties.
To support this work, Vapourtec has installed a Peptide-Builder™ system at AMIBM. The automated Fast-Flow solid-phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) platform is enabling the researchers to investigate a range of peptide sequences and synthesis scales while reducing the manual work associated with conventional SPPS. The team has already synthesized peptides ranging from 10 to 30 amino acids using the system.
The researchers have been particularly impressed by the system’s ease of use, the detailed data generated during synthesis and the high crude peptide purity achieved. For the applications investigated so far, the resulting peptides have not required additional complex purification, helping to simplify laboratory workflows and make more efficient use of research time.
A key feature of the Peptide-Builder is its in-line monitoring capability, including real-time resin-bed volume measurements. Changes in resin-bed volume can provide insight into aggregation behaviour during synthesis, helping researchers understand how a peptide behaves as the chain grows and identify opportunities for optimization.
“We’ve been really impressed with the Peptide-Builder. It gives us valuable insight into what is happening during synthesis while delivering high crude peptide purity. This is a great tool for the lab, and we look forward to exploring Fast-Flow technology further and helping our team develop their understanding of it.”
— Dr Jordy Saya, Maastricht University
By combining automated synthesis with real-time process monitoring, the Peptide-Builder is supporting Dr Saya and his team as they investigate collagen-derived peptides and develop their peptide synthesis workflows.
Reference [1]: Dr Jordy Saya, Maastricht University, research webpage https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/news/coll-gen-animal-free-synthetic-collagen].