PDB Turns 48

10/20 

The PDB was announced on October 20, 1971 in Crystallography: Protein Data Bank Nature New Biology 233: 223 (1971) doi: 10.1038/newbio233223b0.

The October 2011 Molecule of the Month looks at the structures available in the archive's early days: myoglobin, hemoglobin, lysozyme, carboxypeptidase, subtilisin, chymotrypsin, papain, pancreatic trypsin inhibitor, lactate dehydrogenase, rubredoxin, and cytochrome b5.

Today, the PDB archive contains ~157,000 structures of proteins, nucleic acids, and complex assemblies that helps students and researchers understand all aspects of biomedicine and agriculture, from protein synthesis to health and disease. It is managed by the Worldwide PDB (wwPDB) organization that ensures that the PDB is freely and publicly available to the global community.

The wwPDB Foundation was established in 2010 to raise funds in support of the outreach activities of the wwPDB. The Foundation has raised funds to help support PDB40, a symposium celebrating the 40th anniversary of the archive; workshops; and educational publications.

The Foundation is chartered as a 501(c)(3) entity exclusively for scientific, literary, charitable, and educational purposes.

As the fiftieth anniversary approaches, consider supporting the PDB's spirit of openness, cooperation and education with a donation to the wwPDB Foundation. Individual donations ($10 or more) are recognized with a special gift of a hemoglobin lapel pin.

Updated from The Protein Data Bank at 40: Reflecting on the Past to Prepare for the Future (2012) Structure 20: 391–396.

Read more about PDB History.

News Index

• 12/24 Season's Greetings

• 12/17 Play with Molecular Animations

• 12/09 Structural Biology and Nobel Prizes

• 12/05 Introducing Mol*

• 12/03 Molecular Origami: Build a 3D Model of GPCR

• 11/26 Education Corner: Gaming Structural Biology for General Audiences (Part 2)

• 11/19 Introducing Mol*

• 11/12 New EM map validation in OneDep

• 11/12 New Papers on Molecular Visualization

• 11/05 New EM map validation in OneDep

• 10/29 Education Corner: Gaming Structural Biology for General Audiences (Part 1)

• 10/20 PDB Turns 48

• 10/18 Happy Birthday, Irving Geis

• 10/15 From the Bench to Molecule of the Month

• 10/08 Fall Newsletter Published

• 10/08 Improved resolution of DOIs for PDB entries

• 10/01 Access Structure Quality Metrics

• 09/25 Structural Biology Pipeline Meets the Classroom: First Structure Released

• 09/17 Illustrate PDB Structures

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• 09/03 Head Back to School with PDB-101

• 08/27 Poster Prize Awarded at ISMB

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• 08/06 Join Our Biocuration Team

• 07/31 wwPDB News: Improve your previously released coordinates AND keep your original PDB ID with OneDep

• 07/23 Education Corner: How Does Life Work?

• 07/16 Beginner’s Guide to PDB Structures and the PDBx/mmCIF Format

• 07/09 Summer Newsletter Published

• 07/02 Create a Hemoglobin Bean Bag Toss

• 06/25 Learn About HIV and AIDS at PDB-101

• 06/18 Releasing Structures on Hold for Publication

• 06/11 wwPDB News: Improvements to visualization of ligand validation and electron density maps in the wwPDB validation report

• 06/04 New Flyer: Antibiotics in Action

• 06/03 wwPDB News: A tribute to Prof. Michael G. Rossmann

• 05/28 How Structural Biologists and the PDB Contributed to Drug Approvals

• 05/21 Annual Report Published

• 05/14 Award-Winning Videos on Antibiotic Resistance

• 05/07 Education Corner: Exploring the Molecules of Biological Warfare in Virtual Reality

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• 04/23 Celebrate DNA Day on April 25

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• 04/02 High School Students: Submit Antibiotic Resistance Videos Before April 23

• 03/26 Molecular Landscapes and the Art of Science

• 03/19 wwPDB News: The PDB Archive Reaches a Significant Milestone

• 03/12 Visualize Structure Quality Metrics in 3D

• 03/05 New Video: Penicillin and Antibiotic Resistance

• 02/26 Join Our Team as a Biocurator

• 02/26 Mandatory PDBx/mmCIF format files submission for MX depositions

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• 02/19 wwPDB News: Mandatory PDBx/mmCIF format files submission for MX depositions

• 02/12 Join Our Team as a Biocurator

• 02/05 New Online Curriculum: The PDB Pipeline & Data Archiving

• 01/29 Education Corner: Improving Visual Literacy

• 01/22 Papers Published

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• 01/01 2019: What is a protein?