A 100-mL single-neck round-bottomed flask equipped with a magnetic stirrer and a reflux condenser was charged with 1,4-dioxane (30 mL), (1S,11R)-3,6-diazatetracyclo[9.2.1.02,10.03,8]tetradeca-2(10),8-dien-7-one 170a (400 mg, 2.0 mmol), 2-bromo-4-chloronicotinaldehyde 103a (1.30 g, 6.0 mmol), and potassium acetate (390 mg, 4.0 mmol). After bubbling nitrogen through the resulting mixture for 30 minutes, Xantphos (110 mg, 0.20 mmol) and tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium(0) (180 mg, 0.20 mmol) were added, and the reaction mixture was heated at 80° C. for 10 h. After this time the reaction was cooled to room temperature and filtered. The filtrate was partitioned between ethyl acetate (50 mL) and water (30 mL). The aqueous layer was separated and extracted with ethyl acetate (3×30 mL). The combined organic layer was washed with brine (20 mL) and dried over sodium sulfate. The drying agent was removed by filtration and the filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure. The residue was purified by silica-gel column chromatography eluting with 2:1 petroleum ether/ethyl acetate to afford 170b (405 mg, 59%) as a yellow solid. MS-ESI: [M+H]+ 342.2
