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Merck

Amino Acids

Illustration of a ribosome moving along mRNA to incorporate amino acids into a polypeptide.

Amino acids (AAs) are a group of organic molecules in which each is comprised of a basic amino group (-NH2), an acidic carboxyl group (-COOH), and an organic R group (or side chain) that is unique to each amino acid. Amino acids are building blocks of proteins, as well as the intermediates in metabolism. The amino and the carboxyl groups of amino acids react to form a covalent amide linkage, called a peptide bond. This feature of amino acids allows them to polymerize to form proteins as well as peptides, which generally have shorter amino acid chain length. Amino acids can be classified into three groups: essential amino acids, non-essential amino acids and conditional amino acids. Amino acids are commonly used as supplements in cell culture media and in metabolism research. Discover how our amino acids in varying purities and grades can make a difference in your research endeavors.




Polyamino Acids

Our polyamino acids have properties that mimic proteins, making them ideal for both drug delivery and the delivery of nucleic acids both in vitro and in vivo. We supply both research and cGMP polyamino acids with improved solubility, drug attachment stability, drug encapsulation, drug targeting, bypassing multidrug resistance (MDR) factors, minimal stimulation of the immune system, low toxicity, and biodegradability. We manufacture custom polyamino acids for specific molecular weight ranges or polydispersity ranges (size distribution). Moreover, we can conjugate polyamino acids to active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for your drug delivery use.

Protected Amino Acids

Explore our diverse selection of amino acids with protecting groups, such as Fmoc, Boc and Cbz. These protected amino acids are employed for solid-phase peptide synthesis with protecting groups on the amine and those side chains needing protection. We also offer varied options on the protection schemes including derivatives with carboxyl protection. This collection includes amino alcohols, aldehydes, and lactones.

Unnatural Amino Acids

Unnatural amino acids are non-proteinogenic amino acids that either occur naturally or are chemically synthesized. Whether utilized as building blocks, conformational constraints, molecular scaffolds, or pharmacologically active products, our unnatural amino acids represent a nearly infinite array of diverse structural elements for the development of new leads in peptidic and non-peptidic compounds. Due to their seemingly unlimited structural diversity and functional versatility, they are widely used as chiral building blocks and molecular scaffolds in constructing combinatorial libraries. Used as molecular probes, they can help to better understand the function of biological systems. Optimized and fine-tuned analogues of peptidic substrates, inhibitors, or effectors are also excellent analytical tools and molecular probes for investigating signal transduction pathways or gene regulation.




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