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Cunently available technology isnotadequate toassess environmental contamination at Department of Energy ('_.")E)sites, take permanentremedial action, and eliminate or minimize theenvironmental impact offuture operations. Technical resources toaddress these shortcomings exist within theDOE community andthe private sector, buttheinvolvement oftheprivate sector inattaining permanent andcost-effective solutions hasbeenlimited. During 1990, on behalf ofDOE's Office ofTechnology Development, ArgonneNational Laboratory (ANL) conducted a competitive procurement ofresearch anddevelopment projects addressing soil remcdiation, groundwater remediation, site characterization, and contaminant containment. Fifteen contracts were negotiated in these areas. Thisreport documents work performed as partof thePrivate Sector Research and Development Programsponsored by theDOE's Office ofTechnology Development within the Enviromental Restoration andWasteManagementProgram.The research anddevelopment work described herein was conducted under contract toANL. On behalf ofDOE andANL, Iwishtothank theperforming contractor andespecially the report authors fortheir cooperation andtheir contribution todevelopment ofnew processes for characterization andremcdiadon ofDOE's environmental problems. We anticipate that the R&D investment described here wiU berepaid many-fold inthe application ofbetter, faster, safer, and cheaper technologies. Details of theprocurement process and status reports forall15 of thecontractors performing underthis programcan be foundin"Applied Research and Development Private Sector Accomplishments-Interim Report" (Report No.DOE/CH-9216

Initial evaluations of large microbial libraries for potential producers of novel antimicrobial proteins require both qualitative and quantitative methods to screen for target enzymes prior to investing greater research effort and resources. The goal of this protocol is to demonstrate two complementary assays for conducting these initial evaluations. The microslide diffusion assay provides an initial or simple detection screen to enable the qualitative and rapid assessment of proteolytic activity against an array of both viable and heat-killed bacterial target substrates. As a counterpart, the increased sensitivity and reproducibility of the dye-release assay provides a quantitative platform for evaluating and comparing environmental influences affecting the hydrolytic activity of protein antimicrobials. The ability to label specific heat-killed cell culture substrates with Remazol brilliant blue R dye expands this capability to tailor the dye-release assay to characterize enzymatic activity of interest.

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