title: Selective chemical protein modification.
abstract: Chemical modification of proteins is an important tool for probing natural systems, creating therapeutic conjugates and generating novel protein constructs. Site-selective reactions require exquisite control over both chemo- and regioselectivity, under ambient, aqueous conditions. There are now various methods for achieving selective modification of both natural and unnatural amino acids--each with merits and limitations--providing a 'toolkit' that until 20 years ago was largely limited to reactions at nucleophilic cysteine and lysine residues. If applied in a biologically benign manner, this chemistry could form the basis of true Synthetic Biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Spicer
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Chemistry Research Laboratory, University of Oxford, Mansfield Road, Oxford OX1 3TA, UK.
authors.forename: Benjamin G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Davis
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D003545:Cysteine / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D058615:Synthetic Biology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D011506:Proteins; D002244:Carbon; D003545:Cysteine