Used as a chiral building block in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, particularly in the development of protease inhibitors and other bioactive molecules. Its nitrile group allows for further functionalization, while the tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc) protecting group stabilizes the amine during peptide coupling or multi-step reactions. The stereochemistry at the chiral center is valuable for creating enantiomerically pure compounds, making it useful in asymmetric synthesis and medicinal chemistry research.