$30 Million for the Protein Data Bank
The Rutgers-based Protein Data Bank (PDB) began 2004 with the commitment of a record $30 million in federal support for the next five years.
The PDB is an Internet-accessible repository of 3-D models of nearly 24,000 proteins and other macromolecules in its growing inventory. This computer library of molecular structures is one of the world's most critical resources for solving the mysteries of human disease.
The structures archived in the PDB represent an increasingly large fraction of all the molecules of life - ones that will interact with new drugs being designed. These large molecular structures are determined by the most modern experimental methods, including X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy.
"The new funding assures that the PDB can continue to help unlock the secrets of biological systems in 21st century medical and pharmaceutical research," said PDB director Helen Berman, (right) a Board of Governors Professor in Rutgers' department of chemistry and chemical biology.
For the past five years the National Science Foundation, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Department of Energy and the National Library of Medicine have jointly supported the PDB. The funding group expanded this year to include the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
The PDB is managed by three members of a consortium: the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB): Rutgers, the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, San Diego; and the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
In late 2003, the RCSB announced an international partnership to establish a worldwide PDB, coordinating with similar efforts at the Institute for Protein Research at Osaka University in Japan and at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) in the United Kingdom.
Biography, Dr. BermanProtein Data Bank