Used in pharmaceutical research as a chiral building block for the synthesis of bioactive molecules. Its stereochemistry makes it valuable in developing enantioselective drugs, particularly in central nervous system agents and enzyme inhibitors. Commonly employed in medicinal chemistry for structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies due to its amine and alcohol functional groups, which allow for easy derivatization. Also utilized in asymmetric synthesis as an intermediate in the preparation of more complex organic molecules.