Patent ID: 8183178

Claim:
A multi-step in vitro method for producing multiple reaction products in a single reaction mixture, the method comprising the steps of: (a) combining in a reaction vessel (i) a plurality of different templates, wherein each template comprises a reactive unit associated with an oligonucleotide sequence comprising a plurality of codons wherein at least two templates comprise at least one different codon and the reactive units associated with the at least two templates have the same chemical functionality, and (ii) a plurality of different transfer units, wherein each transfer unit comprises a reactive unit associated with an oligonucleotide sequence comprising an anti-codon capable of annealing to a codon present in at least one of the templates under conditions to permit a plurality of transfer units to anneal to a corresponding plurality of templates so that the reactive units of each template react with the reactive unit of each transfer unit to produce a plurality of reaction intermediates, wherein each reaction intermediate is associated with the template that encoded its synthesis; and (b) combining in the same reaction vessel or in a different reaction vessel (i) the plurality of reaction intermediates, and (ii) a plurality of transfer units, wherein each transfer unit comprises a reactive unit associated with an oligonucleotide sequence comprising an anti-codon capable of annealing to a codon present in at least one of the templates, under conditions to permit a plurality of the transfer units to anneal to a corresponding plurality of templates so that the reactive unit of each transfer unit reacts with at least one reaction intermediate to produce a plurality of reaction products, wherein each reaction product is associated with the template that encoded its synthesis; wherein at least two of the reaction intermediates in step (a) are produced by different chemical reactions.