Reading: Cascade Fund invests in peptide synthesis

Commercialisation investment

Professor Laurence Harwood, Head of Organic Chemistry at the University of Reading, has received an investment from the Cascade Fund to commercialise his novel method of peptide synthesis, one of the university’s most promising opportunities.

This is the eighth investment made by the Cascade Fund in technology from Reading and will enable an intensive licensing exercise to be carried out. In return for its investment, the Cascade Fund will be receiving a share of revenue from licensing; details were not disclosed.

It represents a new step for the Fund, managed by Chord Capital Limited, which had previously focused primarily on the development of spin-out companies.

The novel technology,  invented by Professor Harwood and his PhD student Ran Yan, allows peptide chains to be synthesised from the C-terminus, a process which until this point had been impractical due to loss of stereochemical integrity of the growing peptide chain. The new technology enables peptides to be synthesised in both directions in a process known as convergent synthesis, meaning that longer and more complex peptides can be produced much more efficiently and cheaply.

The technology offers peptide manufacturers a competitive advantage at a time when peptides are becoming increasingly important in medical applications such as vaccines and therapeutic drugs.

Professor Harwood was supported in the initial exploration of his idea by a feasibility award from the university, followed by an investment for further commercial development from the CommercialiSE Proof of Concept Fund, managed by Finance South East Ltd. This latest Cascade investment will support a programme of activities from market engagement through to negotiations with companies keen to utilise this exciting technology.

Professor Harwood, whose research focuses mainly on the development of new synthetic methods and their application to the synthesis of natural products, believes being new to the field of peptide synthesis gave him an advantage in tackling what is widely considered to be a common – yet insuperable – problem in the area.

“Conventional peptide synthesis is always carried out in a very linear manner, building the peptide chain from the nitrogen terminus, as attempts to grow peptide chains from the acid terminus result in scrambling of the stereochemistry. This is such a profound problem that the impossibility of synthesising peptides from the acid terminus had become dogma in the field of peptide synthesis. We weren't steeped in this dogma, and didn’t realise this reaction shouldn’t be able to happen, so we just went away and did it,” he explained.