Patent ID: 7935493

Claim:
A method for discovering new drugs and new activities of known drugs, said method comprising: (A) constructing one or more protein-fragment complementation assays (PCAs') wherein said assay comprises the following steps: (i) selecting a protein reporter molecule; (ii) effecting fragmentation of said protein reporter molecule such that said fragmentation results in reversible loss of reporter function; (iii) fusing or attaching fragments of said protein reporter molecule separately to other molecules; (iv) reassociating said reporter fragments through interactions of the other molecules that are fused or attached to said fragments; and (v) measuring the activity of said reporter molecule resulting from the reassociation of said reporter fragments; (B) testing the effects of the new drug compounds and the known drug compounds on the activity of said assay(s); and (C) using the results of said assay(s) to identify the new drug compounds and the known drug compounds with desired activities.