It is estimated that more than 170 million people are infected by HCV worldwide. HCV infection is considered a silent killer because it can be transmitted to new hosts unnoticed and can take up to 20-40 years before severe clinical symptoms develop. To solve the global HCV problem, more effective and affordable drugs against HCV, as well as a vaccine are needed. The extreme genetic diversity of circulating HCV is a major roadblock to a HCV vaccine. HCV isolates from different genotypes can differ by as much as 35% in sequence, consequently, any vaccine based on a single isolate is unlikely to be effective. To overcome this challenge, a broadly effective vaccine must target conserved B and T cell epitopes. We are working towards immunogen development using the epitope vaccine strategy: that a broadly effective HCV vaccine can be attained by targeting conserved neutralizing epitopes on the virus. We have designed peptides to mimic the conformational epitopes observed in the crystal structure between broadly neutralizing HCV antibodies and fragments of the HCV E1 and E2 coat proteins. The design, synthesis and structural properties of these peptides will be discussed as well as our progress towards developing these peptide mimics as immunogens capable of inducing a neutralizing response to HCV