Expanding the Scope of mRNA Display by Chemical Approaches

Abstract

The emergence of peptides as modalities in drug discovery and chemical biology has stimulated research into the discovery of novel peptides with unique structures and functions. mRNA display represents a powerful method for the de novo discovery of bioactive peptides from trillion-member peptide libraries through affinity selection. Combined with genetic code reprogramming in the RaPID platform, the ability to introduce virtually any amino acid into trillion-member peptide libraries provides an enticing tool to produce and identify peptides with unprecedented structural features. The focus of this thesis is to expand the scope of mRNA display through new chemical approaches.