The functional characterization of Open Reading Frames (ORFs) from sequenced genomes remains a bottleneck in our effort to understand microbial biology. experimental validations) [2]. As part of this effort, COMBREX has: (1) created the Gold Standard Database of experimentally characterized proteins (GSDB) in conjunction with UniProt, NCBI and JCVI [3]; (2) traced the annotated functions of 15% of microbial proteins in COMBREX to their experimental sources; (3) developed a novel gene recommendation system to encourage new experiments for those proteins that would have implications for the largest number of additional proteins; and (4) directly funded the experimental testing of numerous microbial proteins using a novel small-grant model. Based on a community consensus, COMBREX emphasizes the results from rigorous, direct biochemical experiments, and is therefore willing to entertain hypotheses for specific gene function from the broadest spectrum of sources – experimental, computational, and even intuition-based hypotheses based on detailed experience. This way of thinking was adopted in recognition of the difficulties associated with experimentally approaching the hypothetical protein. is a major human pathogen that has been associated with the development of gastritis, gastric ulcers and stomach malignancy. Despite its clinical importance, and the large amount of literature devoted to various aspects of its biology, COMBREX documented experimental support for the functions of only 399 of the nearly 1600 proteins-coding genes in is an appropriate organism for further biochemical characterization. Several efforts to increase the Benperidol throughput of biochemical validation have already been quite successful. Yakunin and coworkers [4], [5] developed a set of “entry-level” assays designed to identify the general Benperidol activity of a protein (phosphatase, dehydrogenase, protease etc.), which is usually then followed by the use of more specific substrates. A complementary approach uses a mixture of different substrates simultaneously (substrate cocktails) to speed up the characterization of new enzymes [6]. Impressively, Cravatt and coworkers [7], [8] have pioneered the use of activity-based protein profiling, enriching enzymes of a particular class using affinity labels and identifying them by mass spectrometry. They as well as others have applied this technique to 7 classes of enzymes. In this work, we utilized new methodology (to be described in detail in a forthcoming manuscript) to generate hypotheses. The method utilizes nano-particles coated Benperidol with substrate analogs to enrich proteins from cell lysates of biochemistry: the proteins identified by mass spectrometry were cloned, expressed in ATCC 26695 was produced on Trypticase Soy Agar (TSA) plates at 37C, under 5% CO2 for 48 hours. Protein lysates were generously provided by Dr. Xuesong Zhang and Dr. Martin Blaser using the BugBuster Protein extraction reagent (Novagen; Darmstadt, Germany), Benperidol and stored at a protein concentration above 0.4 mg ml?1 at C80C until use. Protein enrichment via affinity purifications As the focus of this paper is the biochemical characterization of recombinant proteins, a full description of these methods will be described in detail in a forthcoming publication. Briefly, total cell lysates made up of 10 g total protein in 100 l phosphate buffered saline (PBS) were incubated for 5 mins with 10 g gold nano-particles coated with various substrate analogs. Nano-particles were produced as indicated [9]. Nano-particles (10 g in 100 l of PBS) were mixed with 100 l of a solution made up of potential substrates (0.2 mg ml?1 in PBS) in closed vials and incubated overnight at 4C in NGFR an orbital shaker. The substrates utilized were adenine, acetylated xylan [10], guanosine-5′-triphosphate (GTP)/dihydroneopterin triphosphate (both at equal amount), succinyl-Ala-Ala-Ala-protein sequences. The mass tolerance for precursors was set to 50 ppm, and to 0.3 Da for MS/MS fragment ions. Peptide identifications were accepted when scored at greater than 95.0% probability by the Mascot algorithm [12]. Protein identifications were treated as hypotheses for further biochemical characterization. Cloning, expression and purification of recombinant proteins Genomic DNA.