Palladium-catalysed synthesis of 1-isoindolecarboxylic acid esters and sequential Diels-Alder reactions: access to bridged- and fused-ring heterocycles.

The Pd-catalysed intramolecular alpha-arylation of alpha-amino acid esters provides a useful methodology for the synthesis of substituted isoindole derivatives, which have been used in Diels-Alder reactions to access diverse skeletal frameworks.