The total synthesis of natural product structures continues to fascinate and challenge creative chemists. The incentives for reaching these molecular targets are not only intellectual; many natural products provide novel leads for medicinal chemistry.

These days, total synthesis can be efficient enough to provide really useful amounts of complex drug candidates. Furthermore, the strategies and methods developed for the synthesis of natural products can be used to prepare structurally and functionally related compounds.

This lecture will present strategies for the efficient preparation of stereochemically complex small molecule natural products, describe the discovery of new methods in the context of novel schemes, and provide illustrations with examples of recent contributions from the speaker's lab at Stony Brook.