Outreach and Education

Every second inside every living cell, thousands of chemical reactions are taking place. These reactions constitute the essential tasks of life such as metabolism, protein synthesis, cell renewal and growth.

Learn how the proteins called enzymes work to maintain the rate of these reactions at a life-sustaining level in this new video hosted by PDB-101.

Open form of penicillin G with surrounding protein residues in PDB entry 1pwc as seen in the NGL 3D viewer.

The constantly-growing PDB is a reflection of the research that is happening in laboratories across the world. This can make it both exciting and challenging to use the database in research and education.

PDB-101's Guide to Understanding PDB Data was created to help users navigate through the contents of the archive without having a detailed background in structural biology.

A new chapter has been added to help users examine the Small Molecule Ligands are represented in the PDB archive. Topics in this article include:

    General Overview
    Representation of Ligands in Entry Files
    Free Ligands vs. Ligands in Polymers
    Biologically Interesting Molecules
    Electron Density Visualization
    Ideal and Model Ligand Representations

Other chapters in this guide cover biological assemblies, molecular graphics programs, R-value and R-free, and more.

For the fourth year, RCSB PDB invited high school students to tell molecular stories in video. This year's challenge focused on the molecular view of the diabetes treatment and management. The challenge entries (all available online) demonstrate a wide variety of topics with many creative story-telling approaches.

Our panel of expert judges scored the videos based on scientific content (40%), creativity (20%), overall impact (20%), entertainment value (10%), and production quality (10%). In addition, the general public voted for the Viewer's Choice Award.

Congratulations to the 2017 Winners:

Judge's Award First Place
Insulin: From Bacteria To You

By Andrew Ma, George Song, and Anirudh Srikanth of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South in Princeton Junction, NJ
Team Advisor: Matthew Foret

Judge's Award Second Place
Metformin and DPP 4 Inhibitors Take the DIE out of Type 2 Diabetes

By Julie Chaimowitz, Fiona Lu, Lori Mohs, and Amy Ni of East Brunswick High School, East Brunswick, NJ
Team Advisor: Louise Jasko

Judge's Award Third Place
Sugary Solutions: An In Depth Look at the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

By Audrey Guo and Anna Shi of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Junction, NJ
Team Advisor: Meenakshi Bhattacharya

Viewer's Choice Award
Type 2 Diabetes: Meet It Beat It

By Kerwin Chen, Raisa Khuda, and Tasnuba Sukanna of Stuyvesant High School in New York, NY
Team Advisor: Gilbert Papagayo