Combinatorial chemistry: A perspective

Chemically generated libraries are now being widely embraced by researchers in both industry and academia. The field of combinatorial chemistry began only a decade ago. For much of its existence researchers were devoted to preparing large libraries of peptides. Next came the progression to peptide-like oligomeric compounds and, most recently, the preparation of small organic molecules. Today, the vast majority of efforts in the field are devoted toward the preparation of these small, non-oligomeric molecules.