Bio- and Medicinally Compatible α-Amino-Acid Modification via Merging Photoredox and N-Heterocyclic Carbene Catalysis

An N-heterocyclic carbene and photoredox cocatalyzed α-amino-acid decarboxylative carbonylation reaction is presented. This method displays good scope generality, providing a direct pathway to access various downstream α-amino ketones under bio- and medicinally compatible conditions. Moreover, this strategy is appealing to chemical biology because it has great potential for the chemical modification of peptides or the late-stage synthesis of keto-peptides.