Synthesis and Reactions of Methyleneaziridines Chris Hyland Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University, Fullerton Methyleneaziridines are “spring-loaded” highly strained rings that will be activated with transition metals such as palladium in order to access pharmaceutically important pyrrolidines. Palladium is proposed to relieve ring-strain by inserting into the methyleneaziridine to cause ring-expansion We have successfully prepared novel tethered methyleneaziridines for cyclization to pyrrolidines Cyclizations have been carried out and the products are currently being identified A novel rearrangement of methyleneaziridines with a pendant alcohol group has been uncovered and will be exploited for synthesis of biologically interesting dihydrofurans