Recently developed chemical and enzymatic methods to cyclize peptides in already prepared genetically encoded libraries enable the rapid exploration of new cyclic peptide topologies.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$32.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to the full article PDF.
USD 39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Change history
24 February 2025
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00701-x
References
Goto, Y. & Suga, H. The RaPID platform for the discovery of pseudo-natural macrocyclic peptides. Acc. Chem. Res. 54, 3604–3617 (2021).
Junjie, L. et al. Biphenyl-dihydrothiazole-cyclized peptide libraries for peptide ligand and drug discovery. Sci. China Chem. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11426-024-2291-x (2025).
Brown, L. et al. Proximity-driven site-specific cyclization of phage-displayed peptides. Nat. Commun. 15, 7308 (2024).
Wan, X.-C. et al. Asparaginyl endopeptidase-mediated peptide cyclization for phage display. Org. Lett. 26, 2601–2605 (2024).
Wilson, D. R. & Finlay, B. B. Phage display: applications, innovations, and issues in phage and host biology. Can. J. Microbiol. 44, 313–329 (1998).
He, B. et al. Compositional bias in naïve and chemically-modified phage-displayed libraries uncovered by paired-end deep sequencing. Sci. Rep. 8, 1214 (2018).
Li, K., Wang, W. & Gao, J. Fast and stable N-terminal cysteine modification through thiazolidino boronate mediated acyl transfer. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 59, 14246–14250 (2020).
Zheng, M., Haeffner, F. & Gao, J. N-Terminal cysteine mediated backbone-side chain cyclization for chemically enhanced phage display. Chem. Sci. 13, 8349–8354 (2022).
Hampton, J. T. et al. Novel regioselective approach to cyclize phage-displayed peptides in combination with epitope-directed selection to identify a potent neutralizing macrocyclic peptide for SARS-CoV-2. ACS Chem. Biol. 17, 2911–2922 (2022).
Ren, H. et al. A biocompatible condensation reaction for the labeling of terminal cysteine residues on proteins. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 48, 9658–9662 (2009).
Hampton, J. T. & Liu, W. R. Diversification of phage-displayed peptide libraries with noncanonical amino acid mutagenesis and chemical modification. Chem. Rev. 124, 6051–6077 (2024).
Wong, J. Y. K. et al. Genetically-encoded discovery of proteolytically stable bicyclic inhibitors for morphogen NODAL. Chem. Sci. 12, 9694–9703 (2021).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yan, K., Derda, R. Closing the loop with reactions at the N-terminus. Nat Rev Chem 9, 142–143 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00697-4
Published:
Version of record:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-025-00697-4