METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMBINATORIAL CHEMISTRY
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for performing light-directed reactions in spatially addressable channels within a plurality of channels. One aspect of the invention employs photoactivatable reagents in solutions disposed into spatially addressable flow streams to control the parallel synthesis of molecules immobilized within the channels. The reagents may be photoactivated within a subset of channels at the site of immobilized substrate molecules or at a light-addressable site upstream from the substrate molecules. The method and apparatus of the invention find particularly utility in the synthesis of biopolymer arrays, e.g., oligonucleotides, peptides and carbohydrates, and in the combinatorial synthesis of small molecule arrays for drug discovery.
-
Citations
56 Claims
-
1-33. -33. (canceled)
-
34. An apparatus comprising:
-
a plurality of substantially parallel channels disposed within a unitary synthesis block, each of said channels having a first end and a second end;
a fluid chamber continuous with the first ends of said plurality of channels, said fluid chamber effective for flowing a photoactivatable reagent through said plurality of channels from the first end to the second end thereof; and
a a light source for for selectively illuminating at least a portion of said plurality of channels from the first end thereof to activate the flowing photoactivatable reagent for effecting a photochemical reaction between the photoactivatable reagent and immobilized molecules within said selectively illuminated channels. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56)
-
-
47. (canceled)
-
53. A method for the synthesis of an array of molecules comprising:
-
(a) providing housing containing a unitary synthesis block, said unitary synthesis block including a plurality of elongate channels therein, wherein the elongate channels contain immobilized molecules comprised of oligomeric or polymeric molecules wherein the molecules have protecting groups coupled to termini of the molecules;
(b) flowing a photoactivatable reagent through the plurality of elongate channels from a first end to a second end of the channels while selectively illuminating at least a portion of the channels from an end thereof, to provide flowing photoactivated reagent in the selectively illuminated channels;
(c) removing protecting groups from the termini of immobilized molecules using the flowing photoactivated reagent thereby forming deprotected molecules in the selectively illuminated channels;
(d) reacting the deprotected molecules with one or more monomers under conditions effective for coupling the monomers with the deprotected molecules; and
(e) repeating steps (b) and (d) until a desired molecular array is formed within the channels. - View Dependent Claims (54, 55)
-
Specification