Development of an assay to detect proteolytic activity in peptide arrays

A screening method in which a reporter surface gains fluorescence on detection of proteolytic activity was developed. The reporter surface is a two dimensional monolayer covered with a reporter peptide (contains a fluorophore at the C-terminal, quencher at the N-terminal and protease cleavage site in the middle of the sequence). Upon contact with a proteolytic moiety, the quencher is cleaved off the peptide and a gain in fluorescence can be observed.