Peptide-laser-printer
Peptide-laser-printer: When compared to the SPOT synthesis method, our “peptide-laser-printer” improved the state-of-the-art ~40-fold in terms of peptides per area and ~200-fold in terms of cost per peptide. A 2nd generation “peptide laser printer” (Fig. 2B) was central in this achievement. [5] This machine was developed within the EU FP7 project PEPLASER (more) by our cooperation partners Fraunhofer IPA and KMS Automation. Currently, the “peptide laser printer” synthesizes >560.000 peptides per 20x20 cm2. These arrays are commercialized in our spin off company PEPperPRINT. [3, 4]
Fig. 2; Peptide-laser-printer. A) A laser printer prints toner particles that comprise a polymer and OPfp-activated & Fmoc-protected amino acid derivatives. After deposition of all 20 amino acid particles (example illustrated with three colours for three different amino acids) of each layer, these are all melted at once to diffuse and couple to the surface hitherto-immobilized monomers. After coupling, washing, and capping the growing peptide chain is deprotected before the next layer is printed. B) View of the peptide laser printer and a detailed look at its 24 printing units.
Figure from Mattes et al., Advanced Materials, first online published 29 April 2019; 31: 1806656; DOI: 10.1002/adma.201806656
[3] Stadler V, Bischoff FR, Felgenhauer T, Kring M und Breitling F. Winner of the business plan competition Science4Life (awarded with 30.000 €) with the project Fertigung und Vertrieb von Biochips zur Parallel-Synthese unterschiedlicher Peptide (Juni 2009).
[4] Breitling F, Bischoff FR, Stadler V, Felgenhauer T, Leibe K, Fernandez S (all from DKFZ or KIT) and Güttler S, Gröning M, Willems P, Biesinger B (Fraunhofer IPA). Winner of the „Wissenschaftspreis des Stifterverbandes“ (awarded with 50.000 € ) with the project Peptide laser printer (May 2008).
[5] Stadler V, Felgenhauer T, Beyer M, Fernandez S, Leibe K, Güttler S, Gröning M, Torralba G, Lindenstruth V, Nesterov A, Block I, Pipkorn R, Poustka A, Bischoff FR und Breitling F. (2008) Combinatorial synthesis of peptide arrays with a laser printer Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 47, 7132–7135; DOI: 10.1002/anie.200801616.