Promoting a structural view of biology for varied audiences: an overview of RCSB PDB resources and experiences

Abstract

The Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank (RCSB PDB) supports scientific research and education worldwide by providing an essential resource of information on biomolecular structures. In addition to serving as a deposition, data-processing and distribution center for PDB data, the RCSB PDB offers resources and online materials that different audiences can use to customize their structural biology instruction. These include resources for general audiences that present macromolecular structure in the context of a biological theme, method-based materials for researchers who take a more traditional approach to the presentation of structural science, and materials that mix theme-based and method-based approaches for educators and students. Through these efforts the RCSB PDB aims to enable optimal use of structural data by researchers, educators and students designing and understanding experiments in biology, chemistry and medicine, and by general users making informed decisions about their life and health.

Figure 1

Images from the October 2009 Molecule of the Month (doi.org/10.2210/rcsb_pdb/mom_2009_10). Static images such as the illustration on the left are available for download as high-resolution TIFF files; Jmol images, as on the right, launch interactive curated views of a structure.

Figure 2

Assessing the success of the undergraduate honors seminar class: images of biological molecules generated by a student. The left image shows a structure with multiple models generated by the student at the beginning of the class. By the end of the class the student was able to create clear figures, shown on the right, with appropriate regions of the structure drawn and labeled distinctly.