Scientists Miquel Vila-Perello´, Matthew R. Pratt, Frej Tulin, and Tom W. Muir wanted to create an efficient synthesis as the original had required an enzymatic solution and had a low yield. So, they started with L-glutamic acid with protecting groups on both the carboxylic acid (tert-butyl), and Boc on the amine. This synthesis will not undergo detail as the classic, but below is the full synthesis. To find the actual steps, look to the reference.
So, once they had synthesized L-photo-methionine, the yield was 32%, much higher (by six times) the original synthesis. It was used then (with a protection group Fmoc on the amine) which that product underwent more synthetic steps to study if an amino-acid cross linker and a post-translational modification (PTM) could be introduced to the same protein site specifically to capture a covalent interaction of the amino-acid is dependent on the PTM. PTM's regulate protein-protein interactions that have characteristics that are transient and substoichiometric; making these difficult to detect by standard methods. So, in order to see if it would work, the MH2 domain of Smad2 was used because this signaling protein is known to form stable homo-trimers once they come into contact with receptor-phosphorylated serine residues. Expression protein ligation (known as EPL) was used to synthesize to form Smad2-MH2-CSpSM-photo-Met (1). The product was studied with the cross-linker (photo-Met) against a control protein: HA-MH2-CSpSMpS (this lacks photo-methionine, 2) using SDS-PAGE and western blotting using anti-HA antibody. 1 had generated two major cross-linked species that have molecular weight consistent with a dimer and trimer of Smad2-SH2. Without that cross-linker, the dimer and trimer were barely detected in the non-irradiated 1, and in 2 before and after UV irradiation. Proving that l-photo-methionine can be used with EPL and could be used to determine a transient MH2-MH2 interaction that was dependent on a PTM.