PEPperPRINT granted new US patent

We are pleased to announce that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent No. 9,925,509 covering a method for the generation of high-density peptide microarrays by means of a combinatorial laser induced forward transfer (cLIFT).

Based on its proprietary peptide laser printing technology, PEPperPRINT is the leading provider of high density peptide microarrays for antibody and serum analyses. The novel and groundbreaking cLIFT technology for peptide microarray synthesis was originally developed in the laboratory of Professor Dr. Frank Bretiling at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and further strengthens the patent and technology portfolio of PEPperPRINT. A 2016 paper in Nature Communications (Loeffler, et al., High-flexibility combinatorial peptide synthesis with laser-based transfer of monomers in solid matrix material; Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS11844) describes to companies new platform technology in more detail. 

Both technologies, the peptide laser printing and the new cLIFT technology, enable the in situ synthesis of high quality peptides directly on chip with very high spot densities: The increasing diversity of such a peptide library simply increases the success rate of a screening. This is a key feature e.g. in vaccine development: Translation of the whole proteome of a pathogen into tens of thousands of individual peptides can help to identify protective antibodies with amino acid resolution. Compared to the peptide laser printing, the cLIFT method allows the synthesis and screening of ten- to hundredfold more high quality peptides on a single microarray.

"For the first time, we can synthesize hundreds of thousands of peptides on a single chip with the new cLIFT technology. This allows us for screening whole proteomes of many different pathogens at the same time," said Felix Loeffler, group leader at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam and co-inventor of the cLIFT technology.

The CEO of PEPperPRINT, Dr. Volker Stadler, states that “the cLIFT patent ensures exclusive access to one of the most interesting microarray technologies that have been developed in the last years. The technology will help PEPperPRINT to strengthen its market position and to broaden the range of applications covered by peptide microarrays.”