Herein, we describe the first total syntheses of five members of the dimeric nuphar alkaloids:(+ +)-6,6'-dihydroxythiobinupharidine (+ +)-1a,( + +)-6-hydroxythiobinupharidine (+ +)-1b,( À)-6,6'-dihydroxythionuphlutine (À)-2a,( À)-6,6'dihydroxyneothiobinupharidine (À)-3a,a nd (+ +)-6,6'-dihydroxyneothionuphlutine (+ +)-4a.T he latter two have not been found in nature.W eh ave also made each of their enantiomers (À)-1a-b,(+ +)-2a,(+ +)-3a,and (À)-4a.The key step in these syntheses was the dimerization of an a-aminonitrile (a hydrolytically stable surrogate for its corresponding hemiaminal) with chiral Lewis acid complexes.W eh ave also reassigned the literature structures of (+ +)-1a-1b-for those instances in whicht he NMR spectra were obtained in CD 3 OD-to their corresponding CD 3 O-adducts.O ur efforts providef or the first time apoptosis data for (À)-3a,( + +)-4a, and all five non-natural enantiomers prepared. The data indicate high apoptotic activity regardless of the enantiomer or relative stereochemical configuration at C7 and C7'.