Sigma-Aldrich announces new technology

Sigma-Aldrich and the University of Illinois have signed a licensing agreement for the production of research quantities of new boronic acid surrogates.

The company will offer amounts of the acid surrogates for use in Suzuki-Miyaura coupling, as well as commercial-scale quantities for manufacturing customers.

The technology may assist in drug discovery, as it allows "the rapid synthesis of molecules using a single reaction", according to Sigma-Aldrich.

N-methyliminodiacetic acid (MIDA) – a simple ligand that the company says is low-cost and environmentally-friendly – is key to the advancement by reversibly modulating boronic acids towards cross-coupling.

The building blocks formed from MIDA-liagted boronic acid "can be used to construct target molecules using a single cross-coupling reaction in an iterative process, in a fashion resembling peptide synthesis", the company explained.

People working in scientific sales jobs may also be interested to know Sigma-Aldrich will be attending the European Biofuels Expo and Conference next week.