Organocatalytic asymmetric aza-Michael additions.

The catalytic aza-Michael addition is an important reaction within synthetic organic chemistry, given the significance of the biologically and synthetically interesting products, such as beta-amino acids and beta-lactams. In the last decade organocatalysis emerged as a powerful tool in asymmetric synthesis and had a large impact on the development of asymmetric and catalytic conjugate additions of nitrogen nucleophiles to Michael acceptors. In this review a first summary of the recent rapid progress of asymmetric organocatalyzed aza-Michael reactions is presented.