Parker M W
Ian Potter Foundation Protein Crystallography Laboratory, St. Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Vic.
Aust N Z J Med. 1995 Dec;25(6):876-82. doi: 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1995.tb02895.x.
Protein crystallography is the study of the three-dimensional shapes of proteins at near atomic resolution. The field has provided a tremendous insight into the workings of numerous biological processes over the last few decades. The field is presently undergoing a massive worldwide expansion, not only in academic laboratories but also in the pharmaceutical industry. The main driving force for this expansion is the possibility of using the three-dimensional atomic structures of proteins to design lead drugs and to improve the action of existing drugs. This expansion in the field has been mirrored in Australia where the number of protein crystallography groups has more than trebled in the last five years. The work in the Protein Crystallography Unit at St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research has centered on the structural elucidation of membrane proteins and structure-based inhibitor studies of a protein family that attack certain anti-cancer drugs.
蛋白质晶体学是在接近原子分辨率的水平上研究蛋白质的三维形状。在过去几十年里，该领域为众多生物过程的运作提供了深刻见解。目前，这一领域正在全球范围内大规模扩张，不仅在学术实验室，在制药行业也是如此。这种扩张的主要驱动力是利用蛋白质的三维原子结构来设计先导药物并改善现有药物作用的可能性。澳大利亚也反映出了这一领域的扩张，在过去五年里，蛋白质晶体学研究团队的数量增加了两倍多。圣文森特医学研究所蛋白质晶体学组的工作主要集中在膜蛋白的结构解析以及针对一类能攻击某些抗癌药物的蛋白质家族进行基于结构的抑制剂研究。
