In 1995, a group of American biochemical experts who were the earliest engaged in peptide research and peptide synthesis designed and manufactured a fully automatic peptide synthesizer based on the needs of large-scale synthesis of difficult and ultra-long peptides. The application of the principle of no dead-angle stirring and reagent recycling in peptide synthesis not only greatly improves the solid-phase synthesis efficiency, but also reduces the cost of use, making the operation more convenient and safer – this is the prototype of the PSI peptide synthesizer.
From 1988 to 2000, John Ye served as the chief scientist of United Biomedical, Inc., USA, and was responsible for the R&D of peptide diagnostic reagents, peptide vaccines and the production of GMP peptide vaccines.
During the process of producing peptide raw materials of peptide foot-and-mouth disease vaccine, Dr. Ye found that the traditional SPPS adopts the mixing mode that “reactor fixed, and the collision between solid-phase resin and reactant is driven by agitator”. In the manner, the resin will be easily deformed and damaged, and largely reduce the coupling rate; moreover, the fragments of broken resin will clog the sieve plate, which will affect the liquid discharge speed. In order to avoid resin breakage, in 1995, Dr. Ye successfully tested the mixing mode without stirring paddle which “reactor turns up-and-down to drive the resin to collide violently with the reactant”. This laid a foundation of the production of super long peptide of foot-and-mouth disease vaccine.
In order to ensure the security of electronic data of the operation log, as well as meet the US FDA standards, in 2000, Dr. Ye successfully developed the electronic record and electronic signature which complies with US FDA 21 CFR Part 11; aimed to reduce of cost of waste liquid treatment, in 2001, Dr. Ye invented the solvent recycling system, and directly saved 40% washing solvent; to guarantee the equipment material's chemical stability, in 2001, Dr. Ye developed a production scale automatic peptide synthesizer which is fully made of 316L stainless steel.