Steroids are arguably the most well studied and successful class of natural-product-inspired pharmaceuticals, yet step-economical and enantiospecific de novo synthesis remains challenging. Now, it is shown that the combination of metallacycle-mediated annulative cross-coupling and vinyl cyclopropane rearrangement chemistry can be used to deliver a variety of partially aromatic synthetic steroids in a concise, flexible and enantiospecific fashion.
- Wan Shin Kim
- Kang Du
- Glenn C. Micalizio