The One-Bead-One-Compound (OBOC) Library technique is a powerful combinatorial chemistry strategy used to generate vast molecular libraries for screening and discovery. By anchoring a single, unique compound onto each solid bead, researchers can rapidly explore structural diversity across peptides, peptidomimetics, small molecules, and other bioactive scaffolds. This method has become instrumental in drug discovery, diagnostics, biomolecular engineering, and materials science due to its scalability and efficiency. What Is an OBOC Library? An OBOC library is a collection of beads—typically made of resin or polymer—where each bead carries millions of copies of the same compound. The core idea is that every bead is a microreactor that produces one unique molecular variant. This allows researchers to screen thousands to millions of compounds simultaneously while maintaining clarity on bead-specific identities. The OBOC method was designed to overcome the limitations of traditional combinatorial chemistry, offering a route for high-throughput synthesis without the need for separate reaction vessels for each individual compound. How OBOC Libraries Are Constructed The construction of an OBOC library usually follows a split–mix synthesis approach: Starting Material Distribution Beads are split into multiple reaction vessels. Chemical Coupling Different building blocks (such as amino acids) are coupled to…
