GENERATION AND UTILIZATION OF SYNTHETIC COMBINATORIAL LIBRARIES

The use of combinatorial chemistry is fundamentally changing the pace and scope of basic research and drug discovery. Since the introduction of synthetic peptide libraries several years ago, combinatorial chemi stry has proven to be a powerful tool for the generation of immense mo lecular diversities of peptides, peptidomimetics and new organic compo unds. This article briefly reviews methods for the generation and appl ication of combinatorial libraries, with particular emphasis on solubl e synthetic combinatorial libraries. The utility of these molecular di versities for basic research and drug discovery has been demonstrated through the identification of numerous highly active compounds such as antigenic peptides, receptor ligands, antimicrobial compounds and enz yme inhibitors.