A mixture of PCC (7.4 g) and silica gel (7.4 g) was prepared and mixed vigorously for 10 minutes in CH2Cl2 (60 mL). A solution of cyano-alcohol, 5, (2.5 g, 0.0125 mol) in CH2Cl2 (20 mL) was added slowly over 10 minutes The reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 2 hours and monitored by TLC until the starting material was consumed. The crude reaction mixture was added directly unto a short silica gel plug and flushed with CH2Cl2 to yield the cyanostar monomer, 6, as a viscous yellow oil (2.5 g, 60% yield by NMR). The monomer was used in the next step without further purification. Purifying monomer 6 using column chromatography at this stage will likely enhance the yield of the next step. Therein, we see 11% yield without purification of monomer 6. More information on purification can be found in the Supplementary Information.