Methods for Determining Atomic Structures

All structures available in the Protein Data Bank were studied experimentally. The three main techniques used are X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and 3D electron microscopy. The chart Number of Released PDB Structures per Year illustrates the annual growth in usage of each method per year since the start of the archive.

The videos briefly describe the these experimental methods. To learn more, visit PDB-101’s Methods for Determining Atomic Structures.

These videos were excerpted from the animation Celebrating 50 Years of the Protein Data Bank Archive.

X-ray Crystallography

NMR Spectroscopy

3D Electron Microscopy

Related Resources

X-ray crystallography: GIF animation