Apparatus for pre-determined mass sorting of positional-encoded solid phase synthesis supports

A method for synthesizing, from selected monomers, a library of oligomers of defined compositions, said method comprising:

• defining a number of oligomers to be synthesized and the corresponding monomers to be used;
• providing a number of solid synthesis supports equal to the number of oligomers to be synthesized;
• providing a first plurality of carriers for the solid synthesis supports, in which each such carrier is provided with an array of distinct holding positions for solid synthesis supports, and in which each such array includes at least three groups of distinct holding positions;
• placing the solid synthesis supports in the distinct holding positions of said first plurality of carriers;
• contacting each array in the first plurality of carriers with a separately defined monomer to yield an array of chemically transformed solid synthesis supports in each of said first plurality of carriers;
• providing a second plurality of carriers for the solid synthesis supports, in which each such carrier is provided with an array of distinct holding positions for solid synthesis supports, and in which such array includes at least three groups of distinct holding positions for receiving said chemically transformed solid synthesis supports contained in said first plurality of carriers;
• redistributing each said solid synthesis supports from each of said first plurality of carriers to a selected position in one of said second plurality of carriers;
• and
• repeating the steps of contacting and redistributing until the desired number of oligomers have been made on the solid synthesis supports, in which the position of each solid synthesis support in the arrays of distinct holding positions in each such carrier identifies the composition of the oligomer made on it.