The scientific impact of the Structural Genomics Consortium: a protein family and ligand-centered approach to medically-relevant human proteins

As many of the structural genomics centers have ended their first phase of operation, it is a good point to evaluate the scientific impact of this endeavour. The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), operating from three centers across the Atlantic, investigates human proteins involved in disease processes and proteins from Plasmodium falciparum and related organisms. We present here some of the scientific output of the Oxford node of the SGC, where the target areas include protein kinases, phosphatases, oxidoreductases and other metabolic enzymes, as well as signal transduction proteins. The SGC has aimed to achieve extensive coverage of human gene families with a focus on protein–ligand interactions. The methods employed for effective protein expression, crystallization and structure determination by X-ray crystallography are summarized. In addition to the cumulative impact of accelerated delivery of protein structures, we demonstrate how family coverage, generic screening methodology, and the availability of abundant purified protein samples, allow a level of discovery that is difficult to achieve otherwise. The contribution of NMR to structure determination and protein characterization is discussed. To make this information available to a wide scientific audience, a new tool for disseminating annotated structural information was created that also represents an interactive platform allowing for a continuous update of the annotation by the scientific community.