Combinatorial biology

In biotechnology, combinatorial biology is the creation of a large number of compounds (usually proteins or peptides) through technologies such as phage display.

This process was developed independently by Richard A. Houghten and H. Mario Geysen in the 1980s.

Combinatorial biology allows the generation and selection of the large number of ligands for high-throughput screening.

[1][2] Combinatorial biology techniques generally begin with large numbers of peptides, which are generated and screened by physically linking a gene encoding a protein and a copy of said protein.

Large libraries of phages with different proteins on their surfaces can then be screened through automated selection and amplification for a protein that binds tightly to a particular target.