As we celebrate Women's History Month at Cell Origins, we find it important to recognize the many women scientists who have contributed to the advancement of phage display technology. Phage display is an extremely powerful method for discovering peptides and antibodies for drug discovery, studying protein interactions, and elucidating structure-function relationships in a wide variety of biological contexts.

Celebrating Women's History Month

The pioneering works of women scientists enabled much of the current applications of phage display technology, while the ongoing efforts of many others are continuing to drive this field forward. Through their hard work and dedication to their scientific research, female scientists have made significant contributions that have helped shape the drug discovery process of today.

Dr. Susan Deutscher

Dr. Susan Deutscher is a distinguished professor at the University of Missouri, where she has been advancing phage display technology for over three decades. She is widely recognized as a pioneer in this field and her groundbreaking research on in vivo phage display selections has resulted in numerous publications. Dr. Deutscher's work has contributed to the development of several novel phage display selection strategies as well as cancer-targeting peptides that have been used in detection and therapy studies.

Early Career

Dr. Susan Deutscher received her B.S. in cell biology from Purdue University after which she earned her doctorate in biochemistry from St. Louis University. Following her doctorate degree, she continued her studies as a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University. She later joined the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Missouri as a faculty member in 1991, where she established her research laboratory focusing on applying novel combinatorial phage display approaches and structural biochemistry to characterize these interactions.

In Vivo Phage Display

Later, Dr. Susan Deutscher developed a successful research program focusing on phage display-selected peptides as cancer imaging or therapeutic targeting agents. Over the course of two decades, she pioneered several methods within phage display biopanning. In particular, her research at the University of Missouri has been key in emphasizing the importance of using multiple modalities of biopanning to discover peptides with high affinity and specificity that also exhibit optimal in vivo properties. Her studies have resulted in important advancements in the field of drug discovery to develop cancer-targeting peptides in a rapid and more efficient manner.

The introduction of sophisticated in vivo phage display biopanning strategies in animal models by Dr. Deutscher's research group has driven the peptide discovery field forward by providing strategies to ensure that selected peptides have desirable pharmacokinetic properties. Dr. Deutscher's research focuses on the integration of in vivo, in situ, and in vitro combinatorial phage display approaches have solidified her as a highly accomplished scientist with a distinguished career. She is widely acknowledged as an authority on phage display technology as was also stated by Nobel prize winner Dr. George Smith in his Nobel lecture in 2018.

Cell Origins utilizes many phage display strategies that are built on the pioneering work by Dr. Susan Deutscher to optimize binding affinity, specificity, and pharmacokinetics for drug discovery. Learn more about our services.