A New Gateway to Protein Structures

A new window onto the world of protein structure has been opened with the launch of the PSI-Nature Structural Genomics Knowledgebase (PSI-SGKB). The PSI-SGKB will turn the products of the PSI structural genomics effort into knowledge that can be used by the biological research community to understand living systems and disease.

The knowledgebase provides central access to all structures in the Protein Data Bank (PDB), an international asset for biomedical researchers with facilities at Rutgers University. The PDB, an Internet-accessible atlas of 3-D models of biological structures, is directed by Rutgers Professor Helen Berman. It is one of the world's most critical resources for solving the mysteries of human disease.
 
Hosted by Rutgers, the PSI-SGKB serves as a continually updated gateway to research data and other resources from the PSI. First established in spring 2008, the PSI-SGKB is now re-launched in collaboration with NPG, with NPG contributing editorial content to help researchers stay informed about developments in structural biology and structural genomics. It is a free resource from the Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) and Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and is available at . 
 
 "We are very excited to join forces with Nature Publishing Group to bring the many products of the structural genomics effort to a broad audience of biologists," said Rutgers' Berman, director of the PSI-SGKB. “By combining our efforts, we can better supply the advances catalyzed by the PSI, and the resources to analyze them, into the hands of the global community of scientists.”
 
Protein structure can tell us a great deal about how living systems function and can help with drug development and in understanding human disease. However, protein structure information is sometimes not easily interpretable by researchers working outside structural biology.
 
“One of the overarching goals of the PSI is to enable scientists interested in a particular protein family to obtain a relevant structure that can guide functional or disease-related studies,” said Jeremy M. Berg, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that developed the PSI. “The PSI-SGKB is a portal to the wealth of resources available for speeding discoveries about these molecules so vital to our health.”
 
The PSI was launched in 2000 by NIH to determine protein structures on a large scale. Over the course of the initiative, PSI-supported research centers have produced more than 3,200 structures, published around 1,000 scientific papers, and developed many techniques now employed in labs around the world. 

Useful Links:
 
PSI Nature Structural Genomics Knowledgebase
The Protein Structure Initiative and databases on Nature.com
  
Images:
Screenshots of the PSI-SGKB available on request from Grace Baynes.
PSI Images from the NIGMS Image Gallery may be used for news and media
items
 
 
Contacts for further information
 
For Nature Publishing Group:
Grace Baynes
Corporate Public Relations
T:+44 (0)20 7014 4063   
   
For NIGMS and the PSI:
Emily Carlson
National Institute of General Medical
Sciences, NIH
T: 301-496-7301
 


For Rutgers and the RCSB PDB