title: New light for science: synchrotron radiation in structural medicine.
abstract: Macromolecular crystallography (MX) is a powerful method for obtaining detailed three-dimensional structural information about macromolecules. MX using synchrotron X-rays has contributed, significantly, to both fundamental and applied research, including the structure-based design of drugs to combat important diseases. New third-generation synchrotrons offer substantial improvements in terms of quality and brightness of the X-ray beams they produce. Important classes of macromolecules, such as membrane proteins (including many receptors) and macromolecular complexes, are difficult to obtain in quantity and to crystallise, which has hampered analysis by MX. Intensely bright X-rays from the latest synchrotrons will enable the use of extremely small crystals, and should usher in a period of rapid progress in resolving these previously refractory structures.
authors.affiliation: Macromolecular Crystallography Group, Diamond Light Source Limited, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0DE, UK. Thomas.Sorensen@diamond.ac.uk
authors.forename: Thomas L-M
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Sorensen
authors.forename: Katherine E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: McAuley
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Flaig
authors.forename: Elizabeth M H
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Duke
mesh_terms: D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D018360:Crystallography, X-Ray; D015195:Drug Design; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl; D006801:Humans; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000201:enzymology; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes / Q000737:chemistry; D011487:Protein Conformation; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D017356:Synchrotrons; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000188:drug therapy; D014965:X-Rays
chemical_list: D000995:Antitubercular Agents; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes; D047428:Protein Kinase Inhibitors; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl