Used in pharmaceutical research as a chiral building block for synthesizing complex molecules, particularly in the development of drugs targeting neurological and cardiovascular diseases. It serves as a key intermediate in asymmetric synthesis, enabling the production of enantiomerically pure compounds. Its structural properties make it valuable in peptide chemistry for designing bioactive peptides and peptidomimetics. Additionally, it is utilized in the study of enzyme inhibition and receptor binding due to its ability to mimic natural amino acids.