Abstract: A carrier pre-encoded with information sufficient to distinguish it from a heterogeneous population of carriers is disclosed on which a compound can be synthesised. The carrier has two attributes integrally associated therewith, which attributes are detectable and/or quantifiable during synthesis of the compound and which define a code identifying the carrier before, during and after said synthesis, with the proviso that one of said attributes is other than shape, or surface deformation(s) of the carrier. The invention also encompasses a plurality of carriers that are pre-encoded as above and a method of synthesising and deconvoluting a combinatorial library using such carriers.

Abstract: Highly functionalized, porous organosilica particles and methods of their synthesis are described that employ high amounts of functional silane such as 3-mercaptopropyl trimethoxysilane. Silane particle diameters are controlled from less than 1 ?m to over 100 ?m. The particles have a high surface area due to their advantageous internal structures, which consist of large pores, typically up to 10 ?m that are linked by small channels of typically about 20 nm diameter. Isothiocyanate modified fluorescent dyes can enter and react with thiol groups inside the pores. The invention also provides clear silica shells of controlled thicknesses to protect fluorescent signals and provide an independent parameter for distinguishing particle types based on light scattering off different sized particles. The particles are stable and useful for many purposes, particularly for optical bar coding in combinatorial synthesis of polymers such as nucleic acid, polypeptide, and other synthesized molecules.

Abstract: An assembly of a carrier having one or more reporter beads non-covalently attached thereto which may be used in relation to oligomer libraries. The oligomer libraries may be formed by a combinatorial split-process-recombine procedure. The oligomer library comprises a plurality of molecules comprising a multiplicity of different chemical groups. Each reporter bead has a different marker associated therewith to identify the chemical group attached to the carrier as well as to identify the position in sequence of the chemical group relative to other chemical groups in each molecule of the library. The markers are selected from fluorophores, chromophores, bar codes or radioactive or luminescent labels.