Discovering new bioactive molecules is crucial for drug
development.
Finding a hit compound for a new drug target usually requires screening
of millions of molecules. Affinity selection based technologies have
revolutionized early hit discovery by enabling the rapid screening
of libraries with millions or billions of compounds in short timeframes.
In this Perspective, we describe recent technology breakthroughs that
enable the screening of ultralarge synthetic peptidomimetic libraries
with a barcode-free tandem mass spectrometry decoding strategy. A
combination of combinatorial synthesis, affinity selection, automated de novo peptide sequencing algorithms, and advances in mass
spectrometry instrumentation now enables hit discovery from synthetic
libraries with over 100 million members. We provide a perspective
on this powerful technology and showcase success stories featuring
the discovery of high affinity binders for a number of drug targets
including proteins, nucleic acids, and specific cell types. Further,
we show the usage of the technology to discover synthetic peptidomimetics
with specific functions and reactivity. We predict that affinity selection
coupled with tandem mass spectrometry and automated de novo decoding will rapidly evolve further and become a broadly used drug
discovery technology.