BPS 2024
Synthesis of Highly Constrained Double- and Triple-Stapled Peptide Macrocycles
John Phipps
Senior Director of Business Development, CPC Scientific
ABSTRACT
Stapled peptides have emerged as a powerful tool in drug discovery and therapeutic development due to their ability to overcome the limitations associated with traditional peptide drugs, such as poor stability and low cell permeability. By introducing staples into the peptide backbone, researchers can stabilize peptide conformations and enhance their interactions with target proteins, resulting in improved efficacy and specificity. This approach not only addresses the challenges of peptide drug design but also opens new avenues for targeting challenging biomolecular interactions that are difficult to modulate with small molecules or antibodies. The development of stapled peptides has led to significant advancements in targeting protein-protein interactions, addressing previously intractable diseases, and enhancing the precision of therapeutic interventions.
Incorporating staples into peptides is a key strategy for improving their stability, specificity, and therapeutic potential. CPC Scientific has been at the forefront of employing advanced synthetic techniques to integrate various staples into peptide structures, thereby greatly expanding the design possibilities for discovery chemistry. By employing techniques like ring-closing metathesis, lactamization, cycloadditions, reversible reactions, and thioether formation, CPC Scientific can incorporate various staple types into peptides that are preorganized with specific functionalities. Precise control over the assembly of each staple allows for the development of more intricate and well-defined peptide structures (i.e., double- and triple-stapled peptides).
BIO
John Phipps is a Senior Director of Business Development at CPC Scientific with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceutical industry. He is skilled in biotechnology, chemistry, technology transfer, drug discovery, and protein chemistry, with a B.S. in Biochemistry from Colorado State University. John began his career in 1992 as a bench chemist and manager of the Colorado State University core facility from 1999 – 2001, making peptides by SPPS using Boc and Fmoc chemistry. In 2001 John founded Global Peptide Services, serving as president from 2001 to 2008. In 2010, he worked at Bachem as a business development manager until 2017. John moved to CPC Scientific in 2017, and he currently resides in Long Beach, California, and is available to engage peptide and oligonucleotide clients throughout the United States. In 2024, John Phipps was promoted to Vice President of Clinical Pipeline Development.