NIGMS PSI:Biology Initiative -- High-Throughput-Enabled Structural Biology

Abstract

The primary goal of the Protein Structure Initiative:Biology (PSI:Biology) to be funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) is to apply high-throughput structural biology to important biological problems (http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Initiatives/PSI/psi_biology/). This will be accomplished by establishing partnerships between centers for structure determination and biologists with interests in particular proteins or collections of proteins. The PSI:Biology network centers will include: 1) Centers for High-Throughput Structure Determination, 2) Centers for Membrane Protein Structure Determination, 3) the PSI:Materials Repository, and 4) the PSI:Biology Knowledgebase. The partnerships, established through Consortia for High-Throughput-Enabled Structural Biology Partnerships, will define targets for structure determination and provide funds for functional studies in the applicants’ laboratories and for a portion of the cost for structure determination in the center. In addition to protein structures and models, the PSI:Biology network will generate and make available reagents and plasmids for expressed proteins to support functional studies in the research community. NIGMS encourages Partnership applications from biologists or groups of biologists with biological questions that will benefit from the determination of relevant protein structures. The PSI:Biology high-throughput approach will enable examination of families of proteins related to the target proteins, an approach that has proven highly successful in generating the first structure of a family member and then allowing many other family members to be modeled. Examples of current partnerships include using structural genomics, modeling and systems biology to generate a three-dimensional reconstruction of the central metabolic network of the bacterium, Thermotoga maritima, and the discovery of novel enzymatic mechanisms for the enoylase and amido hydrolase classes of enzymes. Additional opportunities for researchers to join the PSI:Biology network will be provided through ongoing and future program announcements. Researchers may also suggest proteins for structure determination through the PSI Community Nomination site at: http://cnt.psi-structuralgenomics.org/CNT/targetlogin.jsp.