Date: 21 April 2020 | Category: News
Vapourtec’s Dr Manuel Nuño and Victoire Laude have collaborated on an article entitled ‘Solid-phase peptide synthesis: recent advances through adoption of continuous flow’ that has appeared recently within Chemistry World.
The article deals with the existing limitations of solid-phase peptide synthesis and how they can be countered; the difficulty of real time monitoring and the need to accommodate volume changes of the resin beads as the peptide elongates. Vapourtec’s new ‘intelligent’ packed bed reactor (VBFR – Variable Bed Flow Reactor) accommodates volume changes as well as providing valuable data about each reaction.
Research Scientist Dr Manuel Nuño, who hails originally from Spain and joined Vapourtec in 2019, explained: “By monitoring and controlling the packed density of the resin beads, channelling of reagents is minimised; reducing the need for excessive reagent and wash volumes.”
Victoire Laude, who is working at Vapourtec before graduating from the National Chemistry School of Clermont-Ferrand, added: “The VBFR is easy to use, the amount and quality of the data generated is extraordinary. I am convinced that the flexibility offered by the VBFR will be very helpful in optimising peptide synthesis, peptide drug discovery and in a couple of years even in peptide production by SPPS.”
Vapourtec MD and founder Duncan Guthrie added: “We are delighted with the article that really does highlight the ‘game changing’ capabilities and possibilities offered with the VBFR.
“There’s been a number of promising scientific papers* published recently that showcase peptide research and the potential of Antiviral AMP (anti-microbial peptides) as potential treatments for coronaviruses including Covid-19.
“The EK1 family of peptides, featured within Nature magazine , certainly looks interesting in this respect. MIT chemists are also making extraordinarily rapid progress (http://news.mit.edu/2020/peptide-drug-block-covid-19-cells-0327) in investigating potential peptide drugs against Covid-19” added Duncan
*Publications:
To read the article in Chemistry Today click here