The asymmetric total synthesis of nonracemic korupensamine B is reported. It includes a newly designed and highly trans-diastereoselective (> 20: 1 dr) route to the tetrahydroisoquinoline ring and an unprecedented atropdiastereoselective Suzuki− Miyaura coupling for construction of the fully fashioned naphthylisoquinoline framework that invokes π stacking as a possible source of stereocontrol.
[Kim, Myung Hee; Choi, Young Lok; Heo, Jung-Nyoung; Min, Yong Ki; Kim, Seong Hwan Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society, 2010 , vol. 31, # 7 p. 2047 - 2050]