Over the past century, there has been a worldwide escalation in the prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease. There are still no cures for these disorders and current therapeutics are only palliative. More recently, emerging therapeutic approaches have focused on maintaining neuronal function in these disease models with small molecules that possess neurotrophic properties. In this multidisciplinary proposal, we plan to complete the first total synthesis of (2R)-hydroxy-norneomajucin, confirm the neurotrophic activity of this natural product and evaluate advanced intermediates, and also initiate investigations into the biological target of this compound.