Steering together all four Ugi pieces: The nearly 60-year-old Ugi reaction is a remarkably efficient means of linking together four molecular building blocks: an aldehyde, an amine, a carboxylic acid, and an isocyanide. Because each component is independently tunable, the reaction is especially well suited to the assembly of diverse compound libraries. However, stereoselectivity has been a challenge. Zhang et al. now show that chiral phosphoric acids can catalyze the four-component coupling with high enantioselectivity (see the Perspective by Riva). Theory suggests that a hydrogen-bonded complex involving the phosphoric acid and carboxylic acid sets the stereochemistry for isocyanide attack on an imine intermediate. Science , this issue p. eaas8707 ; see also p. 1072

Axially chiral arylpyrroles are key components of pharmaceuticals and natural products as well as chiral catalysts and ligands for asymmetric transformations. However, the catalytic enantioselective construction of optically active arylpyrroles remains a formidable challenge. Here we disclose a highly efficient strategy to access enantioenriched axially chiral arylpyrroles by means of organocatalytic atroposelective desymmetrization and kinetic resolution. Depending on the remote control of chiral catalyst, the arylpyrroles were obtained in high yields and excellent enantioselectivities under mild reaction conditions. This strategy tolerates a wide range of functional groups, providing a facile avenue to approach axially chiral arylpyrroles from simple and readily available starting materials. Selected arylpyrrole products proved to be efficient chiral ligands in asymmetric catalysis and also important precursors for further synthetic transformations into highly functionalized pyrroles with potential bioactivity, especially the axially chiral fully substituted arylpyrroles.