A divergent synthetic approach to new sultams utilizing intramolecular oxa-Michael and BaylisHillman reactions of readily prepared vinyl sulfonamides and suitably protected amino alcohols, is reported. A variety of seven-and eight-membered ring sultam scaffolds were synthesized using oxaMichael pathways, whereas both five-and six-membered rings were synthesized using BaylisHillman methods. Baylis-Hillman reactions proceed with good to excellent levels of diastereoselectivity, and oxa-Michael reactions leading to eight-membered ring sultams provide empirical evidence validating 8-endo-trig cyclization pathways.Sulfonamides and their analogs have a rich chemical and biological history and have emerged as a promising class of compounds in drug discovery. 1 Sultams (cyclic sulfonamides), although not found in nature, have also shown potent biological activity, including several displaying a wide spectrum of activities. 2 The more prominent include the antiepileptic agent Sulthiame 3 (Figure 1), Brinzolamide 4 for the treatment of glaucoma, the COX-2 inhibitors Ampiroxicam 5 and S-2474, 6 and selective inhibitors of cysteine proteases involved in the progression of malaria. 7 In addition, a number of benzodithiazine dioxides and benzoxathiazepine 1,1-dioxides displaying anti-HIV-1 activity 8 and the ability to activate glucokinase 9 (type II diabetes), respectively, have been uncovered.Traditionally, sultam syntheses have relied on classical cyclization protocols and a number of transition-metal-catalyzed processes that have recently been reported. 10 Interest in the generation of new sultams for biological screening has provided impetus for exploring the Michael-accepting ability of vinyl sulfonamides. In particular, we aimed to study the titled The titled route began with the assembly of TBS-protected amino alcohols, which represent cheap and versatile building blocks for sultam scaffold synthesis. These TBS-protected alcohols were reacted with 2-chloroethanesulfonyl chloride to produce vinyl sulfonamides 2 in good yields (Scheme 1). Subsequent benzylation/allylation reactions of vinyl sulfonamides 2 yielded vinyl sulfonamides 3 in good yields over three steps. The intramolecular oxa-Michael reaction was initiated by TBS-deprotection with TBAF in THF to afford the unique seven-and eight-membered ring sultams, respectively, in excellent yield under mild condition.Several examples of this straighforward procedure were examined as outlined in Table 1. In all cases the cyclization proceeded without incident. In several cases, the entire linear sequence could be run without the need for chromatography, ultimately resulting in the production of oxathiazepine-and oxathiazocine-dioxides, seven-and eight-membered ring systems, in excellent yields, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this work represents the first report of using intramolecular oxa-Michael reactions to generate an eight-membered ring and enriches Baldwin's rules for ring closure. 18 An orthogonal pathway leading to an intramolecular Baylis-H...