METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMBINATORIAL CHEMISTRY

摘要

A process 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 snynthesis 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 process 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. The array of channels with immobilized molecules can be sliced into substantially two-dimensional arrays for further processing.