for three dimensional protein structure determinations. Possessing protein structure information empowers researchers to conduct ‘structure-based drug discovery.

Protein crystallography is the science of determining the structures of therapeutically relevant proteins at the atomic scale, the most basic level of our biological make-up. There are approximately 100,000 different proteins in the human body. They are the building blocks of life and play critical roles in our biology by doing the body’s work.

Since proteins are what drugs target, being able to see them and how a drug interacts with them structurally enables researchers to use a computer-aided, structure-based approach to design and build better drugs that bind more tightly into a protein’s active site like a ‘key into a lock’.