Patent ID: 7666617

Claim:
A method for identifying an inhibitor of enzyme activity, comprising: (a) providing a first and a second separation gel, each of which comprises at least one inactive enzyme that is capable of modifying at least one protein, wherein the at least one inactive enzyme is uniformly immobilized within each of the separation gels, and wherein the inactive enzyme is capable of re-activation; (b) loading a collection of macromolecules comprising at least one enzyme substrate into the first and the second protein separation gels to generate loaded separation gels; (c) resolving the at least one enzyme substrate on the first and second loaded separation gels to generate resolved separation gels; (d) washing the resolved separation gels; (e) incubating the first and second resolved separation gels in a protein re-activating buffer to re-activate the inactive enzyme; (f) incubating the first resolved separation gel in an enzyme reaction buffer; (g) incubating the second resolved separation gel in an enzyme reaction buffer that further comprises at least one potential inhibitor of enzyme activity; and (h) detecting at least one enzyme substrate in the first resolved separation gel and the second resolved separation gel; (i) comparing the first resolved separation gel and the second resolved separation gel, wherein a reduction in the detection of at least one enzyme substrate in the second resolved separation gel indicates that enzyme activity has been inhibited; and (j) identifying at least one inhibitor of enzyme activity.