An efficient copper-catalyzed enantioselective conjugate addition of dimethylzinc to a,b-and a,b,g,d-unsaturated 2-acyl-N-methylimidazoles has been achieved using ac hiral bidentate hydroxyalkyl-NHC ligand. The reactions proceeded with both excellent regio-and enantioselectivity (14 examples, 87-95 %e e) to affordt he desired 1,4-adducts,w hich were easily transformed to the corresponding aldehydes,esters,and ketones.S ubsequently,t his powerfulm ethodology was therefore successfully applied in the synthesis of natural products. Furthermore,aniterative process was also disclosed leading to highly desirable 1,3-desoxypropionate skeletons (up to 94 % d.e.).Inthe last two decades,t ransition-metal-catalyzed enantioselective conjugate additions (ECA) of organometallic reagents to electron-deficient unsaturated systems have emerged as av ersatile and efficient methodology for the asymmetric formation of C À Cbonds.[1] Among the myriad of transition metals studied, tremendous attention has been given to copper catalysis,which resulted in significant breakthroughs, [2] such as perfect regiocontrol in 1,6-or 1,4-addition with extended Michael acceptors [3] as well as the subsequent sequential 1,6/1,4 processes.[4] These recent achievements with alarge variety of Michael acceptors and organometallic reagents allowed for the efficient preparation of numerous valuable enantioenriched building blocks [1] with remarkable applications in total synthesis.[5] Nevertheless,t he enantioselective transfer of amethyl group to form all-carbon methylsubstituted chiral scaffolds,w hich are present in numerous natural products, [5] remains achallenge. [6] On the other hand, the electron-withdrawing group (EWG) of Michael acceptors has to be considered not only as aplatform for postfunctionalization but should also be compatible with the methylated organometallic reagents and allow its enantioselective addition. To this end, thioesters have been successfully used with the methyl-Grignard nucleophile,a llowing notably iterative ECAp rocesses to form 1,3-desoxypropionate subunits. [7] In this context, the acylimidazole function, which has the advantage to be easily transformed into various functional groups such as aldehydes,k etones,a nd esters [8] should be considered as ap romising EWG.N evertheless,d espite numerous successful uses in additions of stabilized nucleophiles, [9] to thebest of our knowledge the ECAofunstabilized organometallics with unsaturated 2-acyl-N-methylimidazoles has been confined to alkylboron compounds.[10] Herein, we report the first efficient copper-catalyzed enantioselective conjugate addition of ad ialkylzinc reagent to either a,b-o r a,b,g,d-unsaturated 2-acyl-N-methylimidazoles and its applications in the synthesis of natural molecules or towards iterative processes leading to 1,3-desoxypropionate units (Scheme 1).We started our study by screening various classes of chiral nonracemic ligands in the conjugate addition of dimethylzinc to the a,b-unsaturated 2-acyl-N-methylimidazole 1a as model reacti...