“…For the synthesis of these epothilones according to the retrosynthetic analysis of Figure 2, the corresponding heterocyclic stannanes were required. They were prepared either as shown in Scheme 1 (for compounds 26 a – b , 28 , 30 a – b , 32 , 33 , 35 a – c , and 37 a – b ) or by published procedures ( 35 b ,6 36 ,7 38 and 39 ,8 40 ,9 and 41 (commercially available)). The attachment of each heterocyclic moiety onto the epothilone scaffold was then carried out by Stille coupling4c of each stannane with vinyl iodide 22 10 to afford the targeted epothilones 5 – 21 as shown in Scheme 2.…”