In organic synthesis, controlling
stereochemistry can be a challenge whether you are working with small molecules
or larger natural products. Current chiral bases, such as Sparteine, are
difficult to make or expensive to purchase. Their other drawback is that many
chiral bases only can access one stereochemical configuration, not both. In the
work presented here, progress has been made towards developing a chiral base
from an amino acid derivative, L-valine. The chiral base has been fully
synthesized. The use of the amino acid starting material, allows for us to make
both the R and S selective amino acid. Efforts are being made to determine the
efficacy of the base to control stereochemistry.