Theoretical principles of in vitro selection using combinatorial nucleic acid libraries.

A new paradigm for drug discovery and biological research has developed from technologies that integrate combinatorial chemistry with rounds of selection and amplification, a technique called in vitro selection or systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (SELEX). This overview unit discusses nucleic acid libraries that can be used, affinity probability distributions, an equilibrium model for SELEX, and optimal conditions including concentrations and signal-to-noise ratios.