Danishefsky, Wang, Min. JACS, 2009, ASAP. DOI: 10.1021/ja9049433.
I’m still wading through the bumper-Tetrahedron issue flagged-up in the comments, but halfway through reading Amos Smiths spongistatin epic I noticed a new Danishefsky paper in JACS.  So whilst I man-handle Amos’ tour-d’force into bite-sized-chunks, here’s a smart slice of typical Danishefsky.
Initial work on the target was published in a rather nice Tet. Lett. last year, and that’s where the synthetic action starts.  A well known Robison Annulation created a 6,5-fused enone in a racemic fashion, which Danishefsky cyclopropanated …

Johnson, Campbell, Qi. JACS, 2009, ASAP. DOI: 10.1021/ja904136q.
Sorry for the lack of blogging, folks – I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather, but I assure you, it’s not H1N1…  However, it seems like the res of the world is getting on with it, with several nice syntheses in JACS just now.  Lyconadin A is headed for Chemistry World, later this month, whilst plicatic acid is line behind polyanthellin A. Hopefully, sticking the latter into the Tot. Syn. search box (operated by trained hamsters) will …

Davies, Williams, Schwartz, Denton, Lian. JACS, 2009, ASAP. DOI: 10.1021/ja9019484.
Now that’s a substituted ring…  done and dusted by Huw Davies and Craig Williams as a collaborative effort (I’d quite like to know how this worked, as the two groups are quite removed), with Davies weighing in with some smart chemistry for building seven-membered rings.  This clearly critical to the synthesis of such a molecule, but the challenge is the heavy substitution, which has thwarted several groups (including individual efforts).  Whilst this paper doesn’t complete the …