Bacterial protein secretion is a critical and complex process. The See machinery provides a major pathway for protein translocation across and integration into the cellular membrane in bacteria. Small molecule probes that perturb the functions of individual member proteins within the See machinery will be very important research tools as well as leads for future antimicrobial agent development. Herein we describe the discovery of inhibitors, through virtual screening, that specifically act on SecA ATPase, which is a critical member of the Sec system. These are the very first inhibitors reported for intrinsic SecA ATPase. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.