PEPperPRINT cLIFT peptide microarray platform

PEPperPRINT has launched its next-generation peptide microarray platform: cLIFT, short for combinatorial Laser-Induced Forward Transfer. Offering a powerful upgrade to the company’s proprietary laser printing platform, the technology is designed to expand peptide printing capabilities and pave the way for innovative biomedical research applications.

Peptide microarrays are powerful tools for analysis of antibody or protein–peptide interactions, enabling detailed immune response mapping. They can provide critical information for identifying therapeutic antibody candidates, monitoring immune responses to treatment, and evaluating immunogenicity risks. With the improvements introduced by cLIFT, scientists should be able to perform broader, deeper and more customised analyses on a single microarray — from analysing effects of post-translational modifications like phosphorlyations or glycosylations on antibody binding, to complete D-peptide libraries — leading to faster and more informed decision-making in therapeutic development.

At the core of the technology is a laser-based transfer process that is designed to deposit amino acids from a donor slide to an acceptor slide with pinpoint accuracy. The process is repeated in cycles for each amino acid to build high-density peptide microarrays layer by layer.

The platform offers up to 50,000 peptide spots per glass slide, enabling wide peptide or target protein coverage. It enables effortless integration of post-translational modifications, including phosphorylation and glycosylation, as well as straightforward implementation of non-natural amino acids to generate, eg, full D-amino acid or N-methylated peptides. These enhancements broaden the utility of peptide microarrays in different research fields such as epitope mapping, antibody and drug development, vaccine design, immunogenicity risk assessment, and biomarker discovery in cancer, autoimmune or infectious disease research.