Approaches to the design of combinatorial libraries

It is not enough to select a chemistry, build a combinatorial library, and test it for biologically active compounds. Chemical libraries can serve different purposes and it is reasonable that they should be designed in light of their purpose and the information available on structural properties important for biological activity. There is a rapidly expanding literature on the design of chemical libraries. This paper reviews that literature and comments on possible future directions of research on the design of chemical libraries.