THE BROOKHAVEN PROTEIN DATA BANK

Otto Ritter^1,2, Enrique Abola¹, Jaime Prilusky^1,3 & Joel L. Sussman^1,4

¹Protein Data Bank Biology Department Brookhaven National Laboratory Upton, NY 11973
²Department of Molecular Biophysics German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
³Bioinformatics Unit Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot 76100, Israel
⁴Department of Structural Biology Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot 76100, Israel

The Protein Data Bank (PDB) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is an archive of experimentally determined three dimensional structures of biological macromolecules, serving a global community of researchers, educators, and students. The challenges presented by the enormous growth in data over the past several years have been met by the PDB staff and management, which now provides an up-to-date archive, while simultaneously expanding network access (Stampf et al., 1995) and building strong world-wide collaborations (Peitsch et al., 1995). Even larger challenges are at hand, as the deposition rate continues to rise along with the expectations of the consumers of these data. We are enhancing the capabilities of the PDB and transforming it into a new biological Three-Dimensional Macromolecular Structure Database, while retaining many of the features of the PDB, for compatibility (Abola et. al., 1997; Sussman, 1997). Over the course of the next few years, we will continue to:

• Ensure that the archive remains current, correct, and relevant
• Provide a rapid and painless automated deposition system, using internationally agreed-upon CIF standards
• Enhance data validation tools
• Build a relational database to store and provide flexible access to the information
• Integrate the PDB with complementary biological and chemical databases through semantic links and schema sharing
• Provide easy access, through the Internet, to the PDB at BNL and other deposition and distribution sites worldwide

1. Abola, E. E., Sussman, J. L., Prilusky, J. & Manning, N. O. (1997). Protein Data Bank Archives of Three-Dimensional Macromolecular Structures. Methods in Enzym. 277, 556-571.
2. Peitsch, M. C., Stampf, D. R., Wells, T. N. C. & Sussman, J. L. (1995). The Swiss 3D-Image Collection and Brookhaven Protein Data Bank Browser on the World-Wide Web. Trends in Biochemical Sciences 20, 82-84.
3. Stampf, D. R., Felder, C. E. & Sussman, J. L. (1995). PDBBrowse - a Graphics Interface to the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank. Nature 374, 572-574.
4. Sussman, J. L. (1997). Bridging the Gap. Nature Struct. Biol. 4, 517.