An Amphiphilic Polymer-Supported Strategy Enables Chemical Transformations Under Anhydrous Conditions for DNA-Encoded Library Synthesis

Herein, we describe the development of a practical catch-and release methodology utilizing a cationic, amphiphilic PEG-based polymer to perform chemical transformations on immobilized DNA conjugates under anhydrous conditions. We demonstrate the usefulness of our ATAC (amphiphilic polymers for transformations under anhydrous conditions) approach by performing several challenging transformations on DNA-conjugated small molecules in pure organic solvents: the addition of a carbanion equivalent to a DNA-conjugated ketone in tetrahydrofuran, the synthesis of saturated heterocycles using the tin (Sn) amine protocol (SnAP) in dichloromethane and the dual-catalytic (Ir/Ni) metallaphotoredox decarboxylative cross-coupling of carboxylic acids to DNA-conjugated aryl halides in DMSO. In addition, we demonstrate the feasibility of the latter in multititer-plate format.