President’s Welcome

On behalf of the American Peptide Society, it is my great honor and pleasure to welcome you to the 27th American Peptide Symposium in Whistler, British Columbia. The last couple of years were full of pandemic challenges and difficulties in having in-person scientific meetings. This led us to postpone the 2021 American Peptide Symposium to June 2022.

However, last year, we have introduced a monthly ‘e-seminar series’ over a virtual platform to promote scientific and social interactions within the peptide community. It was delightful to listen to the exciting science, given the lab presence many of us experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite these unprecedented times, the co-chairs of the Symposium, Prof. Mark Distefano of the University of Minnesota and Dr. Les Miranda of Amgen, have been working very hard with the Society’s Executive Board to bring the Symposium back on track. I admire the patience and resilience of the co-chairs for bringing innovative topics and outstanding speakers to this meeting. Kudos to Wendy Hartsock, and co chairs and the rest of the Sponsorship Committee for their significant contribution to fundraising efforts. We could not have this conference without their tireless work. Congratulations and my best wishes for a successful symposium.

Peptide Science, including peptide-based therapeutics, continues to be an innovative strategy for developing biopharmaceutical pipelines. The Symposium, with a theme of ‘Peptide Science at the Summit’, will cover the advancement of new technologies essential for next-generation discovery platforms such as genetically encoded libraries of macrocyclic, mirror-Image CLIPS Phage Display, development of peptide-based tools to study cell-cell signaling, the discovery of targeted affinity peptide binders using machine learning and artificial intelligence, molecular transport systems for delivery to the central nervous system and technologies for oral peptide delivery. The talks will also cover engineering
enzymes for green manufacturing of peptide drug products and new peptide synthetic technologies.

My heartiest congratulations to Professor Padmanabhan Balaram of India for receiving our highest honor, the Merrifield Award, for his outstanding lifetime contributions to peptide science. I also want to congratulate other Awardees – Alanna Schepartz and Joel Schneider, du Vigneaud Award, Jean Chmielewski, Goodman Award, Bradley Pentelute, Makineni Lectureship, and Caroline Proulx and Yftah
Tal-Gan, Early Career Lectureship, for their excellence in peptide science.

The symposium program is well balanced with a diversity of investigators to address the cutting-edge peptide science. Symposium co-chairs, Mark and Les, have identified experts in the subject matter from Academia and Industry. We are delighted to have Dr. Melissa Moore of Moderna and David Craik of the University of Queensland giving plenary keynote lectures. In addition to the traditional schedule from the previous years, our co-chairs have introduced poster flash talks, exhibitor flash talks, an entrepreneurship workshop, and a panel discussion on diversity and social justice- my favorite! At this meeting, we have also implemented a “Whova App” to improve your experience at the conferences for ease of navigation of the program and for planning personal schedules and accessing documents and
slides shared by organizers or speakers.

I wish you all the best. Enjoy the scientific talks and networking event. I look forward to seeing all of you in person!

Ved Srivastava