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Peptide Science Michigan
When the history of 21st-century biotechnology is written, the usual suspects—Boston, San Francisco, San Diego—will dominate the headlines. But nestled in the Great Lakes region, a different kind of scientific ecosystem has been flourishing with far less fanfare. Peptide Science Michigan, often celebrated for automobiles and agriculture, has quietly built one of the most comprehensive and collaborative peptide science networks in the United States.
Peptide Science Michigan—short chains of amino acids that act as signaling molecules in the body—represent the therapeutic frontier between small molecules and large biologics. They offer the specificity of antibodies with the manufacturing simplicity of synthetic chemistry. And in Michigan, particularly in and around Ann Arbor, researchers and entrepreneurs have spent decades perfecting the art of turning these molecular strings into life-saving medicines.
From foundational hormone research to cutting-edge retinal disease therapies and natural product drug discovery, the Great Lakes State has developed a vertically integrated approach to peptide science that rivals coastal hubs in everything but media attention. This is the story of that ecosystem—how university cores, contract manufacturers, and spinout companies have created a “Peptide Belt” in the industrial Midwest.
The Academic Engine: Infrastructure for Discovery Peptide Science Michigan
Every great biotech region begins with a core institutional backbone, and for Michigan, that backbone is the University of Michigan’s Proteomics & Peptide Synthesis Core . Located within the Biomedical Research Core Facilities (BRCF) at the Medical School in Ann Arbor, this facility is the hidden engine room of the state’s peptide economy .
Directed by Dr. Henriette Remmer, the Core provides an essential service that lowers the barrier to entry for peptide research: access. Academic labs and small startups rarely have the capital to purchase automated synthesizers, high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) purification systems, or high-resolution mass spectrometers. The Core provides those instruments alongside expert consultation, helping researchers navigate the notoriously tricky chemistry of peptide synthesis .
The range of services is staggering. Researchers can order custom linear or cyclic peptides, incorporate post-translational modifications like phosphorylation, attach fluorophores for imaging, or synthesize heavy isotope-labeled peptides for quantitative proteomics. The Core even offers discounted pricing and training opportunities, ensuring that a graduate student with a bold hypothesis can test it without a seven-figure equipment budget .
But the Core is more than a synthesis factory. It is a full-service proteomics partner, offering protein identification, post-translational modification mapping, and differential expression analysis. This integration is critical: synthesizing a peptide is only half the battle; understanding how it behaves in complex biological systems is the other. By housing both capabilities under one roof, Michigan ensures that its researchers can move seamlessly from molecular design to biological validation.
This infrastructure has enabled cutting-edge work across campus. Researchers at the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) , for example, regularly leverage the Core’s capabilities for drug discovery. In a recent collaboration, scientists used the Core’s mass spectrometry expertise to screen natural product extracts against the SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro)—the target of Pfizer’s Paxlovid . By designing a reporter peptide that Mpro cleaves, the team could rapidly identify which natural compounds inhibited the viral enzyme, accelerating the search for next-generation antivirals .
Beyond Synthesis: The Computational Frontier
Peptide Science Michigan prowess extends beyond wet-lab chemistry and into the digital realm. Dr. Alexey Nesvizhskii, the Godfrey Dorr Stobbe Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan, has become a global leader in proteomics data analysis . His team developed MSFragger, an ultrafast peptide identification tool that has become the engine behind the widely used FragPipe computational platform .
What makes MSFragger revolutionary is its ability to hunt what Nesvizhskii calls the “dark proteome”—the vast number of mass spectra generated in experiments that standard algorithms cannot identify . These unidentified spectra often contain biologically or chemically modified peptides arising from alternative splicing, mutations, or non-canonical translations. By developing algorithms that can search this dark matter, Nesvizhskii’s lab is opening new frontiers in immunopeptidomics and chemical proteomics, allowing researchers to discover entirely new classes of peptide biomarkers and drug targets .
This marriage of high-throughput synthesis, advanced mass spectrometry, and powerful bioinformatics creates a virtuous cycle. The Proteomics Core generates data; Nesvizhskii’s algorithms interpret it; and the insights gained inform the design of better peptides. It is a closed-loop system that few institutions outside of the coastal biotech hubs can match.
Protein Engineering 2.0: Machine Learning and Peptide Design
Peptide Science Michigan field is currently undergoing a transformation driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Rather than laboriously screening thousands of peptide candidates one by one, researchers are training algorithms to predict which sequences will fold correctly, bind tightly to their targets, and resist degradation in the bloodstream.
At the University of Michigan’s Department of Chemical Engineering, Associate Professor Greg Thurber and his team have developed a method that promises to accelerate this process dramatically . Their approach combines simple, cost-effective binary sorting experiments with machine learning models to predict optimal protein and peptide sequences .
The innovation is elegant. Traditional protein engineering uses complex, labor-intensive methods to achieve high precision. Thurber’s method instead sorts cells into just two groups—those that express a desired trait and those that do not—then sequences the DNA to reveal the underlying codes. Machine learning algorithms then denoise the data to identify the best possible sequences .
“The rules that govern how proteins work, from sequence to structure to function, are so complicated,” said Marshall Case, the study’s first author. “Contributing to the interpretability of protein engineering efforts is particularly exciting” .
This technique has profound implications for peptide therapeutics. It can speed up the development of stabilized peptides that resist proteolysis, improve how antibodies bind to their targets in immunotherapy, and generally reduce the cost and increase the scale of peptide optimization . And crucially, the research was conducted using the very Proteomics & Peptide Synthesis Core described earlier, demonstrating how Michigan’s integrated infrastructure enables rapid translation from method development to practical application .
The Industrial Arm: Contract Research and Manufacturing
Academic discovery is essential, but it is not enough. To become a true biotech hub, a region needs industrial capacity—companies that can scale up synthesis from milligrams to kilograms under Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Michigan has several such players, though they often operate beneath the radar of the venture capital press.
Bridge Organics Company, headquartered in Vicksburg, Michigan (near Kalamazoo), has been providing contract research and chemical manufacturing services since 1997 . The company specializes in multi-step synthesis of complex organic compounds, with peptide research listed alongside steroids, heterocycles, and prostaglandins as core competencies .
Bridge Organics supports pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and specialty chemical clients, offering process development and scale-up services that bridge the gap between a lab-scale synthesis and commercial production . While not a household name, companies like Bridge Organics provide the essential industrial chemistry backbone that allows Michigan’s biotech startups to stay local as they grow, rather than being forced to outsource manufacturing to contract facilities in California or Europe.
From Lab to Patient: Peptide Therapeutics Born in Michigan
All of this infrastructure exists to serve a single purpose: developing therapies that improve human health. Michigan has produced several notable peptide-focused biotech companies, each tackling different diseases with distinct technological approaches.
ONL Therapeutics: Saving Sight with Peptides
The most prominent Michigan peptide success story in recent years is ONL Therapeutics . A spinout from the University of Michigan, ONL is developing small peptide therapies to protect the vision of patients with retinal disease. The company’s lead candidate, ONL1204, is designed to prevent the death of photoreceptor cells—the light-sensing neurons in the retina—in conditions like geographic atrophy (a late stage of dry age-related macular degeneration) and retinal detachment.
In November 2024, ONL announced a $65 million Series D funding round, marking the largest venture capital deal in Michigan for that quarter . The company, led by CEO David Esposito, has raised approximately $140 million in traditional financing since its founding in 2011, with support from angel investors and the University of Michigan itself .
The ONL story exemplifies the Michigan model: foundational research conducted at the university, intellectual property licensed through the Office of Technology Transfer, and a dedicated team of entrepreneurs and executives working to shepherd the therapy through clinical trials. The company plans to use its new funding to expand its Southeast Michigan presence and continue human trials —keeping jobs, expertise, and economic value within the state.
Diapin Therapeutics: Oral Peptides for Metabolic Disease
Another notable spinout is Diapin Therapeutics, founded in 2011 to commercialize a novel tripeptide for treating type 2 diabetes and associated complications . The company was built on technology invented by Dr. Yuqing (Eugene) Chen, a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, along with colleagues Changyong Xue and Jifeng Zhang .
The tripeptide, simply called “Diapin,” represents a distinctive approach to peptide therapeutics. Rather than requiring injection like many peptide drugs, Diapin was designed to be orally bioavailable—a significant technical challenge given that peptides are typically degraded in the gastrointestinal tract. The company has also explored applications in cardiovascular disease, including stroke, leveraging research in dyslipidemia and vascular diseases .
Diapin’s journey highlights both the promise and the complexity of university spinouts. The license agreement between the University of Michigan and Diapin Therapeutics required review by the Medical School Conflict of Interest Board and approval by a two-thirds vote of the University’s Board of Regents, given Dr. Chen’s ownership stake in the company . This rigorous process ensures that academic entrepreneurship proceeds ethically and transparently, even as it moves at the speed of business.
Historical Roots: The Michigan Peptide Center
The current wave of peptide startups did not emerge from a vacuum. They stand on the shoulders of decades of foundational research supported by institutional structures like the Michigan Peptide Center (formally the Center for the Study of Neurohormonal Mediators).
The Center, which brought together 55 primary investigators with diverse research goals, was built around a common thread: studying the biochemistry and physiology of peptides as mediators of communication between cells and organs . Some investigators focused on basic molecular research; others worked on integrated systems. Some studied gastrointestinal peptides; others explored their roles in the pancreas, brain, and cardiovascular system .
The Center provided essential shared resources, including a Transgenic Core for developing animal models, a Viral Vector Core for gene transfer experiments, and gene expression profiling services. Researchers used these tools to study everything from pancreatic growth and inflammation to gastric cancer and intestinal development .
This history matters because it created a culture of collaboration and shared infrastructure that persists today. The current Proteomics & Peptide Synthesis Core is a direct descendant of these earlier efforts. And the researchers trained in this environment—who learned to think about peptides not just as molecules but as mediators of complex physiology—have gone on to found companies, lead research programs, and train the next generation of scientists.
Collaborative Chemistry: The LSI Model
No account of Michigan’s peptide ecosystem would be complete without highlighting the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) , a unique research enterprise designed specifically to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration . Housed in a single building on the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus, the LSI brings together chemists, biologists, structural biologists, and computational scientists under one roof, intentionally blurring the boundaries between traditional departments.
The collaboration between chemist David Sherman and structural biologist Janet Smith, both LSI faculty members, exemplifies the model . For two decades, their labs have studied the massive biochemical machines that bacteria use to assemble complex natural product molecules—many of which are peptides or peptide-like compounds with FDA-approved drug applications .
Sherman approaches problems from the perspective of organic chemistry and natural product discovery, looking at the architecture of molecules and wondering how they are built. Smith approaches the same problems from the perspective of protein structure, asking how the enzymes that build these molecules fold and function . Together, they have published over 40 joint papers, revealing the atomic details of how these molecular assembly lines work.
“There’s just an easy exchange of expertise between the labs that we all benefit from by being right here,” Smith said. “For me, I love having people in the institute who have very, very different scientific backgrounds. The cross-fertilization and ability to learn from them is really wonderful” .
Sherman added: “When everyone’s interests align, there’s almost no science we cannot do here at Michigan” .
This philosophy extends to the LSI’s core facilities. The Center for Structural Biology (CSB) produces proteins for researchers; the Natural Products Discovery Core (NPDC) provides extracts for screening; the CCG handles high-throughput assay development; and the Proteomics Core provides mass spectrometry analysis . The whole system is designed to be frictionless, allowing a researcher with an idea to move from conception to data with minimal administrative overhead.
The Michigan Advantage
What explains Michigan’s success in peptide science? Several factors stand out.
First, the university infrastructure is world-class. The Proteomics & Peptide Synthesis Core, the Life Sciences Institute, and the various research centers provide resources that rival any in the country. And critically, these resources are centralized and accessible, not siloed within wealthy labs.
Second, there is a culture of collaboration that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Chemists talk to biologists. Bioinformaticians work alongside wet-lab researchers. Structural biologists share data with pharmacologists. This is not accidental; it is by design, built into the architecture of institutions like the LSI and reinforced by funding structures that reward teamwork.
Third, the translation pipeline functions effectively. The University of Michigan’s Office of Technology Transfer actively works to license promising technologies to startup companies. ONL Therapeutics and Diapin Therapeutics both emerged from this process, and both have kept their operations in Michigan .
Fourth, there is industrial depth. Companies like Bridge Organics provide the chemical manufacturing expertise that allows startups to scale up without leaving the state . This creates a virtuous cycle: startups stay local, they hire local talent, they succeed, and they spawn the next generation of entrepreneurs.
Looking Forward
The future of peptide science in Michigan is bright. ONL Therapeutics is advancing through clinical trials; Diapin Therapeutics continues to develop its oral peptide platform; and the research enterprise at the University of Michigan shows no signs of slowing down.
Emerging areas like peptide-drug conjugates, macrocyclic peptides, and peptide-based materials for drug delivery are all active areas of investigation. The computational tools developed by Nesvizhskii and others are becoming more powerful, enabling the discovery of peptides that would have been impossible to find just a decade ago . And the machine learning approaches pioneered by Thurber and his colleagues promise to accelerate peptide engineering by orders of magnitude .
Michigan may never have the venture capital density of Silicon Valley or the brand recognition of Kendall Square. But in peptide science, the state has built something arguably more sustainable: an integrated ecosystem that connects fundamental research, advanced infrastructure, industrial capability, and clinical translation. It is not flashy, but it works. And for the patients who will one day benefit from Michigan-born peptide therapies, that is what matters most.