The joys of in vitro selection: chemically dressing oligonucleotides to satiate protein targets

Oligonucleotide in vitro selection provides surprisingly specific aptamers to protein targets. Synthetic chemistries for modifying nucleotides have been developed to enhance aptamer binding affinity. The diversity of nucleosides amenable to either triphosphate synthesis or phosphoramidite activation is now sufficiently broad to rival any oligomeric combinatorial library.