PDB-101 Focus: Biotechnology
08/17
Since 2014, PDB-101 has focused on different topics to help build a collection molecular stories around a particular theme. Past topics have included cancer, diabetes, and peak performance.
In 2026, PDB-101 will highlight the structural stories of Biotechnology: using biology in industry.
Many useful enzymes are robust enough to be purified and used in industrial processes. Since they act on biological molecules, these enzymes are widely used in food production. Atomic structures have revealed how these enzymes work, and how they can be improved for better function.
Visit the PDB-101 Biotechnology Browser for resources such as:
Phytase The availability of phosphorus often limits growth in competitive ecological communities, and living things have found ways to get their share. We get our phosphorus in the foods that we eat, nicely packaged into useful molecules such as nucleotides and phosphate ions. Plants must make do with resources that circulate to them, and they often hoard the phosphorus they find in an unusual molecule called phytic acid (or more technically, inositol hexakisphosphate). It is stable and almost indigestible, unless you have the proper enzymes to break it into useful pieces, which causes special problems in agriculture.
Past news and events have been reported at the RCSB PDB website and past Newsletters.
