Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Structural Genomics Consortium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The TB Structural Genomics Consortium is a world-wide consortium of scientists developing a foundation for tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment by determining the 3-dimensional structures of proteins from M. tuberculosis. The consortium would like to solve structures of proteins that are of great interest to the TB biology community. A major goal of the consortium is to have a putative function for every ORF in the TB genome.
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[edit] What is structural genomics?
Structural genomics is a relatively new and rapidly developing field in biology. The goal of this field is to discover and analyze the structures of all protein molecules in nature in order to provide a foundation for a fundamental understanding of biology. Consortium researchers have been leaders in the national and international effort to develop ideas for this field and to engage the worldwide biological community in discussing and advancing the field. Structural genomics is closely tied to functional genomics, the identification of functions of all proteins in nature, and to genomic sequencing, the determination of the genetic blueprints of all organisms. Together these fields will revolutionize biology over the next two decades.
[edit] Why TB?
The illness caused by M. tuberculosis, known as TB, is a contagious disease and has been among human populations for thousands of years (reference). The common name for the illness (no longer used today) is consumption, and until about 50 years ago, there was no treatment. While there are treatments today, and an individual can be effectively cured of the illness, new strains of drug-resistant TB have arisen. The TB consortium was established to better understanding the nature of this evolving organism, facilitate the communication between groups working on a cure and find more effective treatments. see the World Health Organization WHO/TB for more information.
[edit] What is the consortium?
The consortium continues to develop and demonstrate the power of structural genomics--the determination and analysis of protein structure on a genomic scale. As of June 2006, 82 TB protein structures have been determined, 15 since January 1, 2006. The database of linked structural and functional information that has been constructed using this information can form a lasting basis for understanding M. tuberculosis pathogenesis and for structure-based drug design.
As of June 2006, the TB Structural Genomics Consortium consists of 430 active members in 148 laboratories from 83 institutions across 15 countries. Consortium laboratories are collectively responsible for 3.3% of all protein structures in the Protein Data Bank and have extensive records of methods development. Consortium members have carried out a pilot project on the structural genomics of a hyperthermophile that has identified bottlenecks in the structure determination process and resulted in the development of methodologies for high-throughput structure determination and analysis. The Consortium has 5 core facilities (located at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Los Alamos National Lab, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles and Texas A & M University). that carry out an increasing fraction of routine tasks such as protein production, crystallization and X-ray data collection. Members of the consortium improve their productivity by sending materials to these facilities, receiving the resulting products or data, and reporting this activity to the database. This helps to minimize redundant pursuits of targets. This structural and functional information is publicly available.
The 5 core facilities available to consortium members provide services for cloning, expression, and purification of proteins as well as crystallization and subsequent diffraction and data analysis of protein crystals. Furthermore, a database has been developed to record all activity done within the consortium. This database also tracks the movement of materials between members and allows the up to the minute status to be recorded and available to all other members. Because redundant targeting can be a problem, the information the database provides, via the consortium website, is increasingly important.
[edit] Outline of core facilities and what each one does
[edit] Listing of participating laboratories
[edit] Strategy of the consortium
There are three overall elements of our strategy. These are (1) the targeting of proteins from a single organism that have clearly identified functional importance, (2) engineering both of processes to make them high-throughput and of proteins to make them compatible with our processes, and (3) a consortium approach to structure determination and analysis that focuses diverse types of expertise on a critical problem.
[edit] Progress of the consortium (July, 2006)
The following is a listing of the target statuses for all projects pursued by members of the consortium. Each stage of the process from cloning a gene to the determination of the structure is tracked inside the TB consortium website (www.webtb.org). Members of the consortium use this website to indicate what targets they are working on and report the statuses as progress is made.