Determination and identification of active compounds in a compound library

Claim 1

A process for identifying chemical entities at defined positions in a compound which binds to a target molecule with at least a predetermined binding affinity, comprising: (a) contacting a plurality of individual libraries with a target molecule, wherein each individual library has a plurality of compounds having defined positions, with each compound of a library having the same defined chemical entity at the same one of the defined positions, and wherein the compounds of a library differ from the compounds of other libraries by at least one of the defined chemical entity or the defined position for a defined chemical entity, said compound being selected from the group consisting of polymers and nonpolymers, and said chemical entities at the defined positions for polymers being monomeric units and said chemical entities at the defined positions for nonpolymers being chemical substituents, said contacting being a repeated contacting under conditions to bind to the target molecule compounds in the library which bind to the target molecule with at least the predetermined binding affinity and to eliminate compounds that do not bind to the target molecule with at least the predetermined binding affinity; (b) determining during said contacting the libraries in which there is at least one of (i) a decrease in the percentage of compounds in the remaining library that are eliminated or (ii) an increase in the percentage of compounds in the remaining library that are bound to the target molecule, and (c) based on the libraries determined in step (b) and based on the defined chemical entity at the defined position for each of the libraries determined in step (b), identifying chemical entities at defined positions for a compound which binds to the target molecule with at least the predetermined binding affinity.