Pressed pepsin pellets used as targets were ablated with the pulses of the Nd-YAG laser. The activity of the pepsin thin layer, deposited on a glass substrate, was successfully detected by analyzing the proteolytic degradation areas on the polyacrylamide gel (PA-gel) copolymerized with albumin from the hen egg white ( ovalbumin), used as an enzymatic substrate. (C) 2008 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.