This project for which a final one tear of support is requested deals with the completion of the total synthesis of the alkaloid germine. The progress we have made toward this goal has convinced us that one extra year beyond the present grant period would suffice to finish this project which beyond the specific target of gelsemine attempts to put together a molecule with sixteen asymmetric centers by a direct approach in which all centers are introduced starting with a molecule possessing only one asymmetric center, and deriving the other fifteen in relation to that initial one. This is quite unlike the common solution to these asymmetry problems, consisting of linking together fragments containing a small number of asymmetric centers -say five or six- and reaching the total number in that fashion. This is an effective method, but it does not address the same problems. Indeed, no sequence of asymmetric centers of this level of complexity has yet been put together as we are trying to put together germine.
