ABSTRACT
We recently reported (1) a new approach to the stereoselective construction of polycyclic systems, illustrated by the cyclozirconation/carbonylation (2) of a computationally designed diene 1 (Scheme 1) to give the tetracyclic ketone 2. Ketone 2 was converted over several steps to (—)-androst-4-ene-3,l6-dione (3). (3) We describe here the history of this work and the development of the computa tional approach that led to the design of diene 1. We also lay out further lines of exploration that will be interesting to pursue.
