Structural Biology Center

Using high-powered X-rays and Argonne-developed X-ray detectors, researchers at Argonne's Structural Biology Center study data on disease processes and potential cures hundreds of times faster than previously possible. Information gathered at the center helps in the design of vaccines and virus- and bacteria-killing pharmaceuticals.

One Argonne research effort determined the structure of the cholera toxin and how it is able to attack the body. Such knowledge may lead to an improved vaccine.

The center's board of directors includes many of the world's leading molecular biologists. Employing a technique called X-ray protein crystallography, researchers use the center's facilities to find all of the thousands of atoms that make up viruses, proteins, enzymes and other large biological molecules important to human health. The center is used for applied research into medicine, industrial enzymes and other biotechnology products, and for basic research in structural and molecular biology.

Center facilities are available to all qualified biologists through peer-reviewed proposals. As many as 250 biological and medical researchers can use the facility each year. In X-ray protein crystallography, scientists grow crystals of viruses or bacterial proteins the size of a salt grain and then bounce - or diffract - X-rays off the crystals. Computers transform two-dimensional X-ray diffraction patterns into three-dimensional figures revealing details about molecular structure at atomic resolution and providing clues to viral, bacterial and molecular function. Such knowledge at the molecular level allows the design of better enzymes and molecular processes and allows pharmaceutical development to combat viral and bacterial disease. The center is a $15-million research facility at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source.

For more information about Argonne's Structural Biology Center, visit the Web site of Argonne's Structural Biology Center.