Stacy Robin, Begley Darren W, Phan Isabelle, Staker Bart L, Van Voorhis Wesley C, Varani Gabriele, Buchko Garry W, Stewart Lance J, Myler Peter J
Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease, USA.
Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2011 Sep 1;67(Pt 9):979-84. doi: 10.1107/S1744309111029204. Epub 2011 Aug 13.
The Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID) is a consortium of researchers at Seattle BioMed, Emerald BioStructures, the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that was established to apply structural genomics approaches to drug targets from infectious disease organisms. The SSGCID is currently funded over a five-year period by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to determine the three-dimensional structures of 400 proteins from a variety of Category A, B and C pathogens. Target selection engages the infectious disease research and drug-therapy communities to identify drug targets, essential enzymes, virulence factors and vaccine candidates of biomedical relevance to combat infectious diseases. The protein-expression systems, purified proteins, ligand screens and three-dimensional structures produced by SSGCID constitute a valuable resource for drug-discovery research, all of which is made freely available to the greater scientific community. This issue of Acta Crystallographica Section F, entirely devoted to the work of the SSGCID, covers the details of the high-throughput pipeline and presents a series of structures from a broad array of pathogenic organisms. Here, a background is provided on the structural genomics of infectious disease, the essential components of the SSGCID pipeline are discussed and a survey of progress to date is presented.
西雅图传染病结构基因组学中心（SSGCID）是由西雅图生物医学研究所、翡翠生物结构公司、华盛顿大学和太平洋西北国家实验室的研究人员组成的一个联盟，其成立目的是将结构基因组学方法应用于传染病病原体的药物靶点研究。SSGCID目前由美国国家过敏和传染病研究所（NIAID）提供为期五年的资助，用于确定来自各种A、B、C类病原体的400种蛋白质的三维结构。靶点选择工作邀请传染病研究和药物治疗领域的专业人士参与，以识别与抗击传染病具有生物医学相关性的药物靶点、必需酶、毒力因子和候选疫苗。SSGCID所构建的蛋白质表达系统、纯化的蛋白质、配体筛选结果以及三维结构，构成了药物研发研究的宝贵资源，所有这些都免费提供给广大科学界。本期《晶体学报F辑》专门介绍了SSGCID的工作，涵盖了高通量流程的细节，并展示了一系列来自多种致病生物的结构。在此，介绍了传染病结构基因组学的背景，讨论了SSGCID流程的基本组成部分，并展示了迄今为止的进展情况。
