Recent advances in catalytic, enantioselective alpha aminations and alpha oxygenations of carbonyl compounds.

The direct introduction of either a nitrogen or oxygen atom adjacent to a carbonyl group in a catalytic, enantioselective manner using both chiral Lewis acid and Lewis base catalysis has been described recently. The enantiomerically enriched products of these reactions, such as alpha-amino acids, represent fundamental building blocks for the construction of complex natural products and other important bioactive molecules. This Minireview provides a synopsis of this ever-growing field and highlights some of the challenges that still remain.