Patent ID: 7960311

Claim:
A method of producing an affinity support, the method comprising: providing a plurality of candidate artificial receptors; the plurality of candidate artificial receptors independently comprising: at least 6 structural characteristics selected from the group consisting of positive charge, negative charge, acid, base, electron acceptor, electron donor, hydrogen bond donor, hydrogen bond acceptor, free electron pair, π electrons, charge polarization, hydrophilicity, and hydrophobicity; a region on a solid support comprising 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 different building block molecules; each of the building block molecules being independently covalently coupled to the region; a plurality of adjacent building block molecules forming a binding site; the region being a contiguous portion of the surface of the solid support with the different building block molecules distributed randomly throughout the contiguous region; contacting one or more candidate artificial receptors with a test ligand; identifying one or more artificial receptors that bind the test ligand as one or more working artificial receptors; selecting one or more of the working artificial receptors; producing an affinity support comprising the one or more selected working artificial receptors; wherein: each of the building block molecules comprises a framework and n recognition elements and is independently of the formula: framework-(recognition element) n in which: n=1, 2, or 3; each recognition element is independently covalently coupled to the framework; and the framework comprises a functional group effective for covalent coupling to a support or a linker; the framework is alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclic, substituted heterocyclic, aryl alkyl, aryl, heteroaryl, or heteroaryl alkyl; substituted with 1 to 4 functional groups; the functional groups independently being carboxyl, amine, hydroxyl, phenol, carbonyl, or thiol; each recognition element is independently a 1-12 carbon alkyl, substituted alkyl, cycloalkyl, heterocyclic, substituted heterocyclic, aryl alkyl, aryl, heteroaryl, or heteroaryl alkyl moiety; optionally, substituted with a group with a property of positive charge, negative charge, acid, base, electron acceptor, electron donor, hydrogen bond donor, hydrogen bond acceptor, free electron pair, π electrons, charge polarization, hydrophilicity, or hydrophobicity; and when the building block molecule comprises an amino acid derivative, wherein amino acid derivatives are defined as a core feature having the chemical structure —NH—C—C(O)—, the building block molecule comprises a single derivatized amino acid and the framework is the amino acid derivative.