Efficient protocol for the preparation of α-heteroaryl acetaldehydes

α-heteroaryl acetaldehydes have become important building blocks in the synthesis of synthetic nucleosides. Novel organocatalytic cascades have enabled the rapid generation of nucleosides, which are valuable building blocks in the development of antisense oligonucleotides or as stand-alone antiviral and anticancer therapies, obviating the need for laborious synthetic routes relying on chiral pool starting materials and inefficient synthetic routes. This manuscript describes a robust and scalable protocol to α-heteroaryl acetaldehydes from readily available building blocks.