Phase II of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) has begun this month, with ambitious new targets and new partners.

Launched in 2003, the SGC was set up to determine the structure of proteins of medical importance, using high-throughput techniques, with structural data being placed in the public domain. Despite some very challenging milestones, the SGC met its phase I targets (386 human and parasite proteins) ahead of schedule and on budget.

The SGC is based in labs at Oxford, Toronto and Stockholm. Wayne Hendrickson, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University, USA, was recently appointed chair of the SGC Board.

The Wellcome Trust contributed £18 million to the three-year phase I budget of £48m, with other funding being provided by GlaxoSmithKline and agencies in Canada and Sweden.

Funding for phase II has been agreed, which will enable the SGC to solve another 670 medically significant proteins, including some technically difficult membrane proteins. Two additional pharmaceutical companies – Merck and Novartis – are joining the consortium of funders for phase II. Total funding will be in excess of £50m over four years.

As well as providing freely available data on protein structures for fundamental research, SGC collaborations are helping to identify new possibilities for drug treatments for human diseases, including a possible treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia, and antimicrobial agents for cryptosporidiosis and malaria.

Image: A detail from the windows of the Wellcome Trust headquarters showing a protein structure revealed by the Structural Genomics Consortium

See also

• Structural Genomics Consortium press release [PDF 310KB]

External links

• Structural Genomics Consortium