Firm says Overture peptide synthesizer will speed synthesis and tackle complex molecules.

U.K.-based custom peptide and antibody manufacturer Cambridge Research Biochemicals (CRB) has installed an Overture™ robotic peptide library synthesizer to boost its peptide production capacity. The firm claims the new instrument, which is manufactured by Protein Technologies, is the first Overture system to be installed in Europe.

CRB claims the Overture will significantly speed up the synthesis of peptides and is capable of tackling increasingly challenging molecules. “The Overture allows simultaneous synthesis of up to 96 compounds, including libraries of overlapping peptides for epitope mapping, alanine-scanning libraries, positional scanning libraries, random libraries, truncation peptide libraries, and scrambled peptide libraries for sequence optimization,” remarks Laurent Caron, Ph.D., peptide core technology manager at CRB. Protein Technologies claims the system is the only robotic peptide synthesizer to feature on-board automated cleavage without any user intervention.

Acquisition of the Overture platform is the latest move in CRB’s drive to expand its peptide production capacity. At the end of 2010, the firm acquired a microwave Liberty Peptide Synthesizer (manufactured by CEM), which it claims is capable of generating higher purity peptides up to 10 times faster than conventional methods.

CRB has been offering custom-made peptides and antibodies since the 1980s, and through an agreement with Panagene also offers custom PNA oligomers to the U.K. market.

Previous articlePhase III Trial Finds Pfizer’s Axitinib Better than Sorafenib at Boosting PFS in Renal Cell Cancer
Next articleRoche’s HIV Prognostic Test Gets Expanded European Clearance