{"id":8963,"date":"2016-12-20T17:23:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T16:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.embl.de\/?p=8963"},"modified":"2024-03-22T16:45:11","modified_gmt":"2024-03-22T15:45:11","slug":"1216-pdbe-christmas-structures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/news\/lab-matters\/1216-pdbe-christmas-structures\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy anniversary, PDBe!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nowadays, we can see the position of atoms as if we had vision millions of times sharper than human eyes allow. This is the gift of structural biology \u2013 the science of figuring out the three-dimensional structures of molecules (usually proteins), and correlating their shape to their function. Such insights give us clues about how changing a molecule\u2019s shape could change what it does. That\u2019s essentially how medicines work.<\/p>\n

Determining the shapes of molecules is painstaking work, so sharing that knowledge openly with scientists around the world is essential for publicly funded research to proceed efficiently. EMBL-EBI is at the heart of open data in the life sciences, and hosts the European arm of the world\u2019s longest-running molecular data resource: the Protein Data Bank (PDB). Launched in 1971, the PDB is now a worldwide collaboration (wwPDB<\/a>) hosting databases in the US, Japan and Europe. Each of these data resources inspires innovation and promotes understanding of the fundamental processes of life.<\/p>\n

As the Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe<\/a>) looks back on its 20th<\/sup> year in operation – and celebrates its annotation of the PDB’s 25,000th structure today – Ewan Birney pays homage to some of its most intriguing tenants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nine “Structures of Christmas”<\/h3>\n