Synthesis
of unnatural amino acids has long been a focus of chemistry
research. Here, we present an efficient, general method that furnishes
γ-carbonyl α-amino acids via photoinduced decatungstate-catalyzed
Giese reactions of readily available aldehydes as radical precursors.
This mild, robust method is compatible with a wide array of functional
groups and has a broad substrate scope. We demonstrated the utility
of the method by modifying several amino acid bearing drugs and natural
products.