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Paper based on a presentation at the 14th International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis (OMCOS-14), 2-6 August 2007, Nara, Japan. Other presentations are published in this issue, pp. 807-1194Kainic acid (KA), rigidified (S)-glutamic acid, is a well-known kainite receptor agonist for excitatory transmission in the central nervous system (CNS). Our interest in highly selective kainite ligands prompted us to design a series of new kainic homologs, "homokainoids", i.e., conformationally rigidified (S)-glutamic acids. For the syntheses of enantiopure novel homokainoids (pipecolino-glutamic acids), we successfully applied the cyclohydrocarbonylation (CHC) reaction, which has been developed in these laboratories. Efficient total syntheses of enantiopure novel homokainoids from (R)-serine feature the highly diastereoselective conjugate addition and the regioselective CHC process in the key steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]