I visited Boehringer-Ingelheim (Connecticut) last Friday, where I was hosted by Dr. Nick Desroisiers. During my visit I gave a talk and had a chance to meet many people with both process and medicinal chemistry interests. This Ridgefield site is being superbly run by Dr. Chris Senanayake, Vice-President of Chemical Development. I came away impressed by the high quality of scientific publications that have been emerging from this organization over the past 10 years. This commitment to outstanding output is due to Chris’s leadership, which is why he has my utmost respect. I always learn a lot during these trips and, today, I want to comment on a scaleable carbamoyl anion addition process that has been practiced in several different forms at Boehringer-Ingelheim. Various types of amphoteric organolithium species have been generated on 100+ kg scale. I am particularly fond of the dipeptide synthesis using this technology.
amphoteros
forcing molecules to behave
amphoteros 
Yes, this is a first rate work. I think you have a typo – missing methyl. It probably would not work with free NH in formamide, that’s why they methylated it
Oh yes, thanks for noticing – I even had MeI in the equation, but the magic methyl did not end up where it needed to be…