Asymmetric cyclopropane synthesis currently requires bespoke strategies, methods, substrates and reagents, even when targeting similar compounds. This limits the speed and chemical space available for discovery campaigns. Here we introduce a practical and versatile diazocompound, and we demonstrate its performance in the first unified asymmetric synthesis of functionalized cyclopropanes. We found that the redox-active leaving group in this reagent enhances the reactivity and selectivity of geminal carbene transfer. This effect enabled the asymmetric cyclopropanation of a wide range of olefins including unactivated aliphatic alkenes, enabling the 3-step total synthesis of (–)-dictyopterene A. This unified synthetic approach delivers high enantioselectivities that are independent of the stereoelectronic properties of the functional groups transferred. Our results demonstrate that orthogonally-differentiated diazocompounds are viable and advantageous equivalents of single-carbon chirons<i>.</i>
An artificial metalloenzyme for carbene transfer based on a biotinylated dirhodium anchored within streptavidin
