Translation of a phosphine- and azide-based reaction to chemical modification of biomolecules in ionic liquid

The difference of reaction design principles between traditional, small molecule synthetic chemistry and biomolecular chemical reactions prevented the simple translation of small molecule chemistry into biomolecular reactions. One of the key challenges of bioconjugation, or reactions on biomolecules, are the necessity of aqueous solutions as the solvent. In this Synpact article, we describe our pursuit of using an ionic liquid as a nonaqueous reaction medium to conduct phosphine- and azide-based bioconjugation reactions.