A non-radioactive method for the assay of many serine/threonine-specific protein kinases

The generation of drugs that modulate the activities of particular protein kinases has become a prime focus of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Consequently, improved methods for the development of high-throughput screening formats for these enzymes is a high priority. In the present study, we have designed three generic peptide substrates that can be used to assay a diverse range of protein kinases. These peptides share a common seven-residue epitope that includes the site of phosphorylation, and against which we have generated a phospho-specific antibody. Thus a large number of serine/threonine-specific protein kinases can be screened using a simple non-radioactive format.