Patent ID: 7442160

Claim:
A method for selecting one or more small molecules having binding affinity to a target molecule, the method comprising: (a) producing a library of small molecules associated with corresponding oligonucleotides by a method comprising the steps of (i) providing a plurality of templates comprising a plurality of first reactive units associated with a corresponding plurality of first oligonucleotides, wherein each first oligonucleotide defines at least one codon sequence, (ii) providing a plurality of transfer units comprising a plurality of second reactive units covalently attached to a corresponding plurality of second oligonucleotides, wherein each second oligonucleotide defines an anti-codon sequence complementary to a codon sequence, and (iii) annealing oligonucleotides having complementary codon and anti-codon sequences to bring the first and second reactive units into reactive proximity thereby producing the small molecules associated with the corresponding oligonucleotides, wherein each of the corresponding oligonucleotides has a nucleotide sequence informative of the synthetic history of the small molecule associated therewith; (b) mixing the small molecules with a target molecule under conditions to permit small molecules capable of binding the target molecule to bind thereto; and (c) separating small molecules that bind to the target molecule from unbound small molecules thereby selecting one or more small molecules having binding affinity to the target molecule.