Method of making and using derivatized paramagnetic polymer beads

A method for synthesizing a peptide or a protein comprising the steps of:

• a.) providing a paramagnetic polymer bead comprised of a plurality of polystyrene coated metal oxide particles randomly dispersed in a polystyrene matrix, said polystyrene matrix comprised of a styrene monomer, wherein at least one said styrene monomer has a covalently bonded haloalkyl group;
• b.) sonicating a hydrophilic polymer having a terminal amine group and a molecular weight of between at least about 400 to 4,000 daltons with said paramagnetic polymer bead to obtain a paramagnetic-polystyrene-spacer arm bead;
• c.) forming an amide bond between said paramagnetic-polystyrene-spacer arm bead and a linker to provide a paramagnetic-polystyrene-spacer arm-linker bead;
• d.) esterifying said paramagnetic-polystyrene-spacer arm-linker to a first amino acid having a protected amine group;
• e.) deprotecting said protected amine group to provide a reactive amine site;
• f.) coupling a second amino acid having a protected amine group to said reactive amine site;
• and
• g.) sequentially repeating steps e and f until a peptide is obtained.

A paramagnetic solid-phase support having a hydrophilic surface for magnetic separation of support bound components from unbound components, said support comprising:

• a paramagnetic polymer bead comprised of a plurality of polystyrene coated metal oxide particles randomly dispersed in a polystyrene matrix, said polystyrene matrix comprised of a styrene monomer, wherein at least one said styrene monomer has a haloalkyl group which is covalently bonded to said styrene monomer;
• a spacer arm, said spacer arm forming an amide bond with said haloalkyl group;
• and
• a linker having a free carboxylic acid terminal end, said linker forming an outer most surface on said bead.