Patent ID: 7377894

Claim:
A method of identifying a compound that binds to a target molecule, the method comprising: selecting a library comprising test compounds, wherein each test compound is selected based on having a solubility in deuterated water of at least about 1 mM at room temperature and a molecular weight of no greater than about 350 grams/mole; providing a plurality of mixtures of the test compounds, each mixture being in a sample reservoir; introducing a target molecule into each of the sample reservoirs to provide a plurality of test samples; providing a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer equipped with a flow-injection probe; transferring each test sample from the sample reservoir into the flow-injection probe; collecting a relaxation-edited nuclear magnetic resonance spectrum on each test sample in each sample reservoir; and comparing the spectra of each test sample to the spectra taken under the same conditions in the absence of the target molecule to identify test compounds that bind to the target molecule; wherein the concentration of target molecule and each test compound in each sample reservoir is no greater than about 100 μM; and wherein the ratio of target molecule to each test compound in each sample reservoir is about 1:1.