Patent ID: 6878557

Claim:
A method of making a logically-ordered, spatially-addressable array of compounds having a same common linear, branched or cyclic molecular core structure comprising at least three atoms of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus or sulfur and at least two structural diversity elements, wherein the molecular cores have attachment points for the structural diversity elements, an ability to present the structural diversity elements in controlled varying arrangements, and an ability to be constructed in a rapid concerted fashion, said array comprising at least a first sub-array and a second sub-array, wherein the compounds composing the first sub-array each have at least one common structural diversity element and the compounds composing the second sub-array each have at least one common structural diversity element, said method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a plurality of reaction vessels organized into the first and second sub-arrays; (b) adding reactants to each of the reaction vessels in a manner such that when reacted, the reactants form the compounds of the array, and such that the compounds composing each sub-array differ from one another by one change in a structural diversity element; and (c) reacting the contents of each reaction vessel under appropriate conditions to form the compounds of the sub-arrays in the logically-ordered array.