| Summary: | <p>Boronic acids are versatile synthetic building blocks, widely applied in molecular sensing applications and have more recently attracted attention as warheads in medicinal chemistry. Yet, boron containing organic compounds are rarely found in nature. Despite boron being considered a “probably essential” element which is found across all domains of life, organoboron compounds have only been reported to occur naturally in form of boric acid esters. These compounds are known to fulfil several biological functions, including cell-wall strength modulation and quorum sensing. In fact, boronic acids display unique reactivity towards Lewis bases, allowing for the dynamic and reversible formation of covalent interactions with suitable ligands. Precisely engineered boronic acids placed within biomacromolecules, such as proteins, could allow for altered or novel, previously not accessible, function and enable the selective manipulation of biological systems through specific programming of de novo binding.</p>
<p>Herein, methods for the selective modification of proteins through diboron reagents are described.</p>
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