Synthesis of the unnatural amino acid Nα-Nε-(ferrocene-1-acetyl)-l-lysine: A novel organometallic nuclease

The synthesis of a new unnatural amino acid, Nα-Nε-(ferrocene-1-acetyl)-l-lysine, has been successfully achieved. The structure of the compound permits incorporation of ferrocene into both peptides or proteins and the nucleolytic activity exhibited by this molecule can be further developed to investigate protein-nucleic acid interactions.