NSF PR 96-30 - June 3, 1996
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NSF Funds International Protein Data Bank Fuels Research
in Biotechnology
Spearheaded by the National Science Foundation, four
government organizations have jointly awarded funds
to the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New
York, for its Protein Data Bank (PDB) for the next
four years. The PDB has become a major resource for
research in a wide variety of biology fields, including
industrial research in biotechnology and basic university
research in structural biology.
"The PDB is a unique international clearinghouse for
structural information about proteins and nucleic
acids," says Mary Clutter, NSF assistant director
for biological sciences. "Scientists from around the
world contribute to the PDB and use it on a daily
basis. The scientific community depends on convenient
access to this information as an invaluable aid to
its research."
An ongoing revolution in experimental techniques has
led to a dramatic increase in the size of the PDB
in recent years. The database has grown from about
300 structures in 1989 to 5,000 in 1996. At the current
rate, the number of entries will double in less than
two years.
Attesting to the international importance of this
crucial data base are the 11 countries in addition
to the United States that serve as secondary distributors
(China, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan,
Netherlands, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom).
Some, like Japan, have more than one secondary distributor
as does the U.S. For example, the San Diego Supercomputer
Center and National Center for Biotechnology Information
at the National Library of Medicine both provide secondary
distribution of this database.
The PDB, which originated at Brookhaven, has been
supported for 25 years by renewable NSF grants. Several
federal agencies - NSF, the U.S. Department of Energy,
the National Institute of General Medical Sciences
of the National Institutes of Health, and the National
Library of Medicine -are cooperatively supporting
the PDB.
Note: Information contained in the PDB is available
on the World Wide Web at: http://www.pdb.bnl.gov.
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