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In this issue...
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1997 Santa Fe Highlights
Human Genome Project Administration
In the News
Publications
Software and the Internet
Funding
Meeting Calendars & Acronyms
Survey Identifies Growing Need for Synchrotron Analyses
Structural Biology and Synchrotron Radiation: Evaluation of Resources and Needs (1997) is a report on the current status of biological uses and demands of synchrotron radiation in the United States. For this report, staff at the synchrotron radiation facilities and their user communities were surveyed, and a group of experienced structural biologists analyzed the data.
In evaluating what synchrotron facilities and support operations are needed and in anticipating future requirements for sustaining the exciting progress in structural biology, the BioSync Committee noted the expanded impact of structural biology in recent years. This expansion has led to an increase in the size and complexity of macromolecular structures being determined and in the difficulty of experiments being pursued. Structural biology is having a widening effect on such diverse fields as immunology, neurobiology, cell biology, virology, physiology, molecular biology, medicine, and biotechnology.
Recent advances in structural biology can be attributed to (1) methodological improvements that allow a vast array of cellular proteins to be cloned and expressed in quantities sufficient for structural studies, (2) use of cryocrystallography to prepare extremely stable crystals, and (3) availability of and technological innovations at synchrotron radiation facilities (see Envisioning the Proteome.) These factors have brought many more projects of high biological significance into the realm of structural biology. Without synchrotron sources, many of these new research projects could not have been undertaken.
The BioSync Committee reached the following main conclusions:
1997 BioSync Report
Related Information
The electronic form of the newsletter may be cited in the following style:
Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v9n3).
The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international 13-year effort, 1990 to 2003. Primary goals were to discover the complete set of human genes and make them accessible for further biological study, and determine the complete sequence of DNA bases in the human genome. See Timeline for more HGP history.
Published from 1989 until 2002, this newsletter facilitated HGP communication, helped prevent duplication of research effort, and informed persons interested in genome research.