"The story behind Pepdura began at the bench in The Gruber Lab, driven by a simple question that kept coming up in our research: why does nature rely so heavily on unstable, short-lived peptides to control such critical biological functions? Over the years, I became fascinated by how these tiny molecules — often degraded within minutes — could trigger such precise and powerful effects in the body.

That curiosity turned into a mission. We started experimenting with ways to preserve their function while overcoming their fragility. It wasn’t easy — most attempts to stabilize them also switched-off their activity. But through persistence, teamwork, and some unexpected breakthroughs, we found ways to re-engineer these peptides without losing what made them special.

I never set out to found a company. But as the molecules got stronger, more selective, and longer-lasting, it became clear that they had real therapeutic potential. Pepdura was born from that realization: that the same molecules nature uses for fast, local signaling could become safe, long-acting drugs — if we learned how to speak their language."

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Chrisitian Gruber
(Biochemist and Associate Professor at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria)