I will discuss the search for galaxies and QSOs at the highest redshifts, out to the Epoch of Reionization. Observations in the submillimeter play a fundamental role in such searches, in particular once ALMA will become operational. I will focus on the properties of the molecular gas (the phase of the ISM out of which stars form) in the earliest systems as derived through observations in the millimetre and radio regime. These observations allow us to measure the reservoir of molecular gas and to constrain the physical properties and excitation of the gas. Resolved imaging of the host galaxies also allows us to derive first dynamical masses for these objects. Such mass determinations are critical to determine whether there is a possible evolution of the famous MBH–σbulge relation with redshift or not. Recent measurements in the QSO redshift record holder J1148+5251 (z= 6.42) provide evidence that the black hole in this system assembled before the stellar bulge.