Combinatorial Synthesis Chemistry, Biology, and Biotechnology

The primary use of combinatorial chemistry is for drug discovery and lead optimization. The technique has also significant potential in the fields of material science, catalyst development and studies of molecular recognition. 

Tlie basic study of intermolecular interactions is facihtated by one-bead-one-stRicture libraries which can be powerful tools for the discovery of hgands to synthetic receptors and vice versa. Encoded combinatorial libraries have been useful for disclosing ligands for well-designed macrocyclic host molecules and to elucidate their specificities for peptide sequences. These studies led via receptors with more flexibility to simple host molecules without elaborate design that ai e accessible to combinatorial synthesis. One application is the development of chemical sensors for analytes that are otherwise difficult to detect or only non-specificaUy detected. Such hbraries have been used to find new catalysts and enzyme mimics. 

Combinatorial synthesis has been applied to the development of new chual stationary phases (CSPs) for large-scale chromatographic separations, which are becoming increasingly important due to the complexity of both synthesized as well as natural products. 

Such small-molecule hgands, primarily natural products or synthetic variants of them or rationally designed molecules or randomly synthesized molecules, can either inactivate or activate protein function. Efficient methods of ligand synthesis and discovery are requhed to provide a smaU-molecule partner for every gene product or target. 

In addition to synthesizing and screening large numbers of small molecules, synthetic strategies are required which enable the synthesis of vast numbers of compounds with strrrctures reminiscent of natural products and compatible with miniaturized assays. This will be necessary in order to discover non-natural compounds having the binding affinities and specificities characteristic of natural products. 

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