Impact of Structural Science
“Periodic Table of Crystals”
"Advanced Photon Source helps Pfizer create COVID-19 antiviral treatment”  The first oral treatment for COVID-19, the protease inhibitor Paxlovid (Nirmatrelvir), was developed by Pfizer scientists in collaboration with crystallographers at APS (Advanced Photon Source), Argonne National Laboratory. The FDA has approved Paxlovid for emergency use. The structure of Paxlovid bound to the protease was determined at the IMCA-CAT beamline at the APS. The beamline is operated by the HWI (Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute). ACA members Lisa Keefe, Ann Mulichak, Erica Duguid and Jesse Yoder are mentioned as contributors.
“Celebrating 50 Years of the Protein Data Bank Archive”
The Protein Data Bank celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021 with more than 170,000 molecular structures available online...watch video
"Structural biology in the time of COVID-19; perspectives on methods and milestones"
Cryo-electron microscopy has been rapidly applied to study the structure of SARS-CoV-2, research which will be crucial to our understanding of the molecular basis of infection.
"The role of Crystallography and other Structural Sciences in Covid-19 therapies"
“Visualizing an unseen enemy; mobilizing structural biology to counter COVID-19”
My purpose in writing this editorial, however, is to applaud the energy and skill of the researchers, and their public spirit in sharing their results. And I take a vicarious pride in the fact that the discipline to which I have given my professional life – crystallography – has such an important role at a time of international crisis.” More…
“The data universe of structural biology”
Crystallographers have a long tradition of effective data management practices. It is intriguing to speculate on the origins of these practices. Perhaps the requirement for ordered crystals carries over into a need for ordered results. Or perhaps it is a consequence of the fact that crystallographic experiments generate large volumes of data, yielding definitive results that are utilized by many other scientists… more
“A shared vision for macromolecular crystallography over the next five years”
This article is part of the Special Issue: Transactions from the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Crystallographic Association: Data Best Practices: Current State and Future Needs. The introduction notes the “dramatic” importance of macromolecular crystallography (MX) in the history of structural biology. However, “Despite its maturity and success in answering biological questions, MX has now arrived at a critical juncture.” More… In this review [IUCrJ. (2017), 4, 308-321] on the occasion of the award of the 2017 Ewald Prize by the IUCr, Blundell presents a personal view of the relationship between academia and industry in the development of structure-guided drug discovery.
In the introduction Glazer points out that both William Henry and William Lawrence Bragg were "quite competent artists". Glazer thinks that the combination of being scientists and artists led to the discovery that kicked off x-ray crystallography...more
"A Century of Powder Diffraction: Mini-Symposium"
David Cox, Tim Fawcett, Pete Chupas, Andrey Yakovenko, Saul Lapidus, Olaf J. Borkiewicz, and Robert B. Von Dreele Talks were given on November 11, 2016 at the Advanced Photon Source...more
"From Chocolate to Drug Discovery - What Crystallography Has Done for the World."
Rosalind Franklin Lecture 2016 given at Birkbeck, University of London...watch video
The year was 1982. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York was celebrating a milestone at its newest facility: the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) had achieved its first light...more
"2014 International Year of Crystallography"
In celebration of IYCr 2014 the ACA posted several interesting history links and a timeline...more
The Royal Institution of Great Britain The Royal Institution's digitized archive of films relating to the Bragg family, their research, and the world of science at that time....more
Mariusz Jaskolski, Zbigniew Dauter, Alexander Wlodawer From the discovery of X-rays to crystallography in the era of genomics - the contributions of 42 Nobel-Prize-winning scientists in physics, chemistry or medicine are listed. The article focuses on 24 crystallographers who made important contributions to our understanding of the structure and function of biological macromolecules and includes a colorful family tree of crystallographers.
"Economic Growth and Scientific Advancement of X-Rays"
What has economics to say about X-rays? After all, along with other social sciences, economics has sometimes been regarded with suspicion, even disdain, by the natural sciences...more in PDF "From Molecules to Medicine: How Structure Helps Cure Disease"
In this YouTube video Dr. Petsko describes how structural information is used to design drugs against neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's...more "The Protein Data Bank archive as an open data resource"
In 2016 there were over 125,000 structures in the PDB. Berman et al. describe the evolution of this valuable archive in the 45 years since the PDB was founded...>PDF
Diamond Light Source A 40 minute documentary, charting the history of crystallography tells a fascinating story of a scientific technique that is revealing many of life's most beautiful secrets...watch video "Crystallography one century AD (After Dorothy)"
Professor Elspeth Garman 2010 Dorothy Hodgkin Memorial Lecture, Somerville College and the Association for Women in Science and Engineering...watch video |
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