US Patent Issued to The Regents of the University of California on Feb. 3 for "Preparation of functional homocysteine residues in polypeptides and peptides" (California Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 3 -- United States Patent no. 12,540,162, issued on Feb. 3, was assigned to The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, Calif.).

"Preparation of functional homocysteine residues in polypeptides and peptides" was invented by Timothy J. Deming (Los Angeles) and Eric G. Gharakhanian (Los Angeles).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Methodology was developed for transformation of methionine residues into homocysteine derivatives. Methionine residues can undergo alkylation reactions at low pH to yield sulfonium ions, which can then be selectively demethylated to give alkyl homocysteine residues. This process tolerates many functional groups."

The patent was filed on Aug....