Patent ID: 7269519

Claim:
A method for identifying a member of a mass-coded combinatorial library which is a ligand for biomolecule and assessing the effect of the binding of the ligand to the biomolecule, said mass-coded molecular library comprising compounds of the general formal XY n , wherein n is an integer from 2 to about 6, X is a scaffold and each Y is, independently, a peripheral moiety, wherein said mass-coded combinatorial library is produced by reacting a scaffold precursor with a sufficient number of distant peripheral moiety precursors such that there exist at least about 250 distinct combinations of n peripheral moieties derived from said peripheral moiety precursors, said method comprising the steps of: (a) contacting the biomolecule with the mass-coded molecular library, whereby members of the mass-coded molecular library which are ligands for the biomolecule bind to the biomolecule to form biomolecule-ligand complexes and members of the mass-coded library which are not ligands for the biomolecule remain unbound; (b) separating the biomolecule-ligand complexes from the unbound members of the mass-coded molecular library; (c) dissociating the biomolecule-ligand complexes; (d) determining the molecular mass of each ligand to identify the set of n peripheral moieties present in each ligand, wherein the molecular mass of each ligand corresponds to a set of n peripheral moieties present in that ligand, thereby identifying a member of the mass coded combinatorial library which is a ligand for the biomolecule; and (e) assessing in an in vitro assay the effect of the binding of the ligand to the biomolecule on the function of the biomolecule.