The combinatorial library: a multifunctional resource.

About 10 years ago Dr. Mario Geysen introduced a method for synthesizing a large number of peptides on solid supports simultaneously. This work has subsequently been generalized by many other research groups to develop technologies that allow from hundreds to thousands to millions of compounds to be synthesized in parallel. These large collections of compounds have been now termed combinatorial libraries. Much of the effort in this field has been directed to drug discovery. However, in recent years, these libraries have been shown to be very useful for finding compounds (such as inhibitors, binding agents, enzymes, and antibodies) that satisfy specific requirements. Thus these techniques represent a very excellent resource for the discovery of compounds for a variety of biotechnological process needs.