Complex synthetic chemical libraries indexed with molecular tags.

Combinatorial methods of chemical synthesis allow the creation of molecular libraries having immense diversity. The utility of such libraries is dependent upon identifying the structures of the molecules so prepared. We describe the construction of a peptide combinatorial library, having 117,649 different members, synthesized on beads and indexed with inert chemical tags. These tags are used as a binary code to record the reaction history of each bead. The code can be read directly from a single bead by electron capture capillary gas chromatography. We demonstrate the correct selection of members of the library on the basis of binding to a monoclonal antibody.