The use of palladium-catalyzed reactions to introduce new carbon-carbon bonds is a fundamental synthetic strategy that has been widely embraced due to its high chemo- and regioselectivity and functional group tolerance. In this context, Pd(0)-catalyzed aminocarbonylations using Mo(CO)₆ instead of toxic and gaseous CO and with allylamine as the nucleophile were investigated. The aminocarbonylated product dominated over the Mizoroki-Heck product, and (hetero)aryl iodides, bromides and chlorides gave N-allylbenzamides in good yields.

In this thesis improvements to an existing protocol for the Pd(II)-catalyzed synthesis of aryl ketones from five benzoic acids and a variety of nitriles are also presented. Addition of TFA improved the yields and employing THF as solvent enabled the use of solid nitriles, and the aryl ketones were isolated in good yields.

The pandemic of HIV infection is one of the greatest public health issues of our time and approximately 35.3 million people worldwide are living with HIV. There are currently many drugs on the market targeting various parts of the viral reproduction cycle, but the problems of resistance warrant the search for new drugs. HIV-1 protease makes the virus mature into infectious particles. In this thesis a new type of HIV-1 protease inhibitor (PI) is presented, based on two of the PIs on the market, atazanavir and indinavir, but it has a tertiary alcohol, as well as a two-carbon tether between the quaternary carbon and the hydrazide β-nitrogen. A total of 25 new inhibitors were designed, synthesized and biologically evaluated, the best compound had an EC₅₀ value of 3 nM.

Based on this series a project aimed at synthesizing macrocycles spanning the P1-P3 area was initiated. Macrocycles often tend to have an improved affinity and metabolic profile compared to their linear analogs. Introduction of a handle in the para position of the P1 benzyl group proved difficult, despite efforts to synthesize intermediates containing either a bromo-, hydroxy-, methoxy-, silyl-group protected hydroxy- or an alkyne-group. The lactone intermediate was abandoned in favor of an alternative synthetic route and initial studies were found to be promising. This new approach requires further investigation before the target macrocycles can be synthesized.