Protein power

Proteins are responsible for most cellular functions that underlie life, and are the targets of most drugs. They are therefore crucial to our health. To advance basic and applied research on proteins, the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), a not-for-profit company, is determining the three-dimensional structures of proteins of medical relevance, and placing them in the public domain without restriction.

The SGC applies a high-throughput approach to structure determination, concentrating on human proteins likely to be of medical importance and proteins from pathogenic organisms, such as the malarial parasite.

The structures are freely released, creating a valuable resource for academic research and drug discovery. During 2004/05, the SGC has been highly successful, achieving its first-year milestone of 50 human and malaria protein structures on budget and two months ahead of schedule. By year-end it had completed well over 100 structures.

The SGC has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, GlaxoSmithKline and a group of Canadian funding agencies. Earlier this year Swedish funders joined the SGC and a Swedish node was launched at the Karolinska Institute.