A membrane-based high-throughput screening (HTS) assay for active D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) in liquid samples as well as in intact Escherichia coli cells has been developed and optimized. The detection limit of the assay was less than 1 ng per sample. The method proposed can be used for quantitative DAAO determination in the range of 0.13 to 3.60 ng enzyme per probe. The protocol was successfully tested to screen a library of E coli clones containing mutant DAAOs active toward target substrates. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.