Highlighting Structural Biology

11/07 

Each structure in the Protein Data Bank contributes to our greater understanding of biology and medicine.

Structural Biology Highlights hosted at PDB-101 explore some of the structures made possible by the Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) supported by the NIGMS from 2000-2015.

PSI researchers focused on accelerating discovery in structural genomics and contributing to understanding biological function. As a result, PSI efforts developed new technologies and methods that improved the process of protein structure determination and prediction.

Over its 15-year period, nearly 7000 PDB structures were determined. Many of these structural advances are highlighted in these Structural Biology Highlight articles (formerly called Featured Systems).

PSI researchers explored the functional diversity of GPCR structures. For more information, see the highlight on G-Protein Coupled Receptors.

These articles, written by Molecule of the Month creator David S. Goodsell, originally appeared at the Structural Biology Knowledgebase website (SBKB.org) that served as an information portal for PSI structures, theoretical models, technologies, and related information.

The Structural Biology Knowledgebase: a portal to protein structures, sequences, functions, and methods. M. J. Gabanyi, P. D. Adams, K. Arnold, L. Bordoli, L. G. Carter, J. Flippen-Andersen, L. Gifford, J. Haas, A. Kouranov, W. A. McLaughlin, D. I. Micallef, W. Minor, R. Shah, T. Schwede, Y. P. Tao, J. D. Westbrook, M. Zimmerman, H. M. Berman. (2011) J Struct Funct Genomics 12: 45-54.