The group has extensive interests in the total synthesis of bioactive natural products, exploiting catalysis in key transformations, and using cascade processes to form complex frameworks. Many of the molecules we target either feature, or use, unsaturated motifs (alkenes, alkynes, allenes) in their construction. Recent examples include two approaches to rubriflordilactone A, a member of the Schisandrafamily of natural products. We exploited a palladium-catalyzed cyclization of a bromoenediyne to form the 7,6,5-CDE ring natural product core, and also a cobalt-catalyzed alkyne cyclotrimerization approach, both routes converging on a late stage intermediate.