Training, Outreach, and Education

Since 2014, PDB-101 has focused on different topics to help build a collection molecular stories around a particular theme. Past topics have included cancer and diabetes.
In 2024, PDB-101 will highlight the structural stories of Peak Performance: the structural biology of athletics and well-being.

Athletes require bodies that are the best that is possible, all the way from molecules to muscles. By understanding the structure and function of our molecules, athletes can ensure that they are performing at their peak. This knowledge also informs the ways that we all can live our best lives, at all stages of our lives.

Visit the PDB-101 Browser for a variety of features, including (see image):

1. The Insulin and Diabetes poster illustrates how structural biology has revealed the details of insulin signaling and how this knowledge is being used to create new and better treatments for diabetes
2. The citric acid cycle, also known as the Krebs cycle or the tricarboxylic acid cycle, is at the center of cellular metabolism, playing a starring role in both the process of energy production and biosynthesis. Visit Molecule of the Month for more.
3. Molecular Lanscapes: a cross section through a red blood cell is shown at the bottom, with hemoglobin in red and the cell membrane in purple.

At this year's meeting of ACA: The Structural Science Society, the RCSB PDB Poster Prize award went to Kyle Ludlow.

What is the best target protein density for TELSAM fusion crystallization?
Kyle Ludlow (1), Prasadika Samarawickrama (1), Reed Probst (1), Parag Gajjar (1), Sara Soleimani (1), Wisdom Abiodun (1), Dalton Hansen (1), Jacob Averett (1), Tzanko Doukov (2), James Moody (1)
(1) Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, USA
(2) Macromolecular Crystallography Group, Structural Molecular Biology Resource, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, Menlo Park, California, USA

Many thanks to the Poster Chairs Sara Andres (McMaster University) and Leighanne Gallington (Argonne National Laboratory), the judges, and the ACA.

At this year's Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference, the RCSB PDB Poster Prize award went to Yehlin Cho.

Enhancing Protein Design Robustness through Noise-Informed Sequence Design
Yehlin Cho, Sergey Ovchinnikov, MIT

A new  painting has been added to  PDB-101's SciArt gallery of Molecular Landscapes by David S. Goodsell.

The image shows a cross section through an influenza virion. It is surrounded by a lipid bilayer membrane (light purple) filled with hemagglutinin (purple), neuraminidase (magenta), and a few M2 proteins (small purple proteins). M1 matrix protein (blue) lines the inner side of the membrane. RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (red) is bound to the genomic RNA strands (yellow), which are protected in a helical complex with nucleoprotein (orange).

Influenza Virus Acknowledgement: Illustration by David S. Goodsell, RCSB Protein Data Bank doi: 10.2210/rcsb_pdb/goodsell-gallery-049

The publication describes how RCSB.org provides important tools and resources to search, visualize, and analyze experimentally-determined 3D biostructures alongside computed structure models of proteins predicted using artificial intelligence/machine learning-based tools. PDB-Dev, a prototype system supporting integrative or hybrid methods structural biology, and RCSB PDB training resources available from PDB-101 are also described.

This article is part of a collection of articles from the IUCr 2023 Congress in Melbourne, Australia, and commemorates the 75th anniversary of the International Union of Crystallography. It describes presentations made by RCSB PDB team members at the meeting in August 2023.

RCSB Protein Data Bank: supporting research and education worldwide through explorations of experimentally determined and computationally predicted atomic level 3D biostructures

Stephen K. Burley, Dennis W. Piehl, Brinda Vallat, Christine Zardecki
(2024) IUCrJ 11: 279-286 doi: 10.1107/S2052252524002604

Inktober is an annual ink drawing challenge to follow a list of 31 drawing prompts, one for every day of October, and publish the work on social media. Structural biologist Irina Bezsonova (UCONN Health) created PDB-themed images for October in 2023 and 2022. These images are hosted in a SciArt Gallery at PDB-101.

These images of her amazing PDB-inspired drawings are available for download.

Irina Bezsonova described how she created her images for the Inktober SciArt Celebrating PDB50 during the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the PDB in the Winter 2022 RCSB PDB Newsletter Education Corner.

Nobel Prizes highlighting achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace are being announced this week.

Since its inception, many awards have recognized achievements made in molecular biology, structural biology, and related research.

Browse PDB-101 to explore articles and resources that highlight many of the PDB structures and related experimental techniques associated with Nobel Prizes, including a timeline of awards made in Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Physics and corresponding Molecule of the Month articles.

Visit PDB-101 to explore Nobel Prizes and Structural Biology.