Phage display represents an important approach in the development
pipeline for producing peptides and peptidomimetics therapeutics. Using
randomly generated DNA sequences and molecular biology techniques,
large diverse peptide libraries can be displayed on the phage surface. The
phage library can be incubated with a target of interest and the phage
which bind can be isolated and sequenced to reveal the displayed peptides’
primary structure. In this review, we focus on the ‘mechanics’ of the phage
display process, whilst highlighting many diverse and subtle ways it has
been used to further the drug-development process, including the
potential for the phage particle itself to be used as a drug carrier targeted to
a particular pathogen or cell type in the body.