Design and synthesis of a chemically diverse, lead-like DNA-encoded library from sequential amide coupling

DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) are established as an effective screening strategy to identify protein ligands and offer a cost-effective means of screening large numbers of compounds. However, the synthesis and utilisation of DELs is implemented by relatively few laboratories. Here, we describe the design and synthesis of a medium-sized DEL through simple amide coupling procedures. We provide details of chemistry and enzymatic steps and demonstrate their effectiveness by synthesising 300 thousand and 3 million-member DELs. We demonstrate their integrity through screening against carbonic anhydrase IX and show their chemical diversity through in silico comparison with an established high-throughput screening library. The DELs described can be used as a resource to accelerate hit identification for early-phase drug discovery and are available to the academic community for screening.