- "Structural biology is a field that is many centuries old which, as defined by the Journal of Structural Biology, deals with structural analysis of living material (formed, composed of, and/or maintained and refined by living cells) at every level of organization."
The study of the three-dimensional structure of biological molecules.
- "Early structural biologists throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries were primarily only able to study structures to the limit of the naked eye's visual acuity and through magnifying glasses and light microscopes."
- "The most prominent techniques are X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and electron microscopy."
- "Through the discovery of X-rays and its applications to protein crystals, structural biology was revolutionized, as now scientists could obtain the three-dimensional structures of biological molecules in atomic detail."
- "Likewise, NMR spectroscopy allowed information about protein structure and dynamics to be obtained."
- "In the 21st century, electron microscopy also saw a drastic revolution with the development of more coherent electron sources, aberration correction for electron microscopes, and reconstruction software that enabled the successful implementation of high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy."
- "The field of structural biology expanded and also became a branch of molecular biology, biochemistry, and biophysics."
- "Molecular structure of biological macromolecules (especially proteins, made up of amino acids, RNA or DNA, made up of nucleotides, and membranes, made up of lipids)."
- "This subject is of great interest to biologists because macromolecules carry out most of the functions of cells, and it is only by coiling into specific three-dimensional shapes that they are able to perform these functions."
- "This architecture, the 'tertiary structure' of molecules, depends in a complicated way on each molecule's basic composition, or 'primary structure.'"
- "At lower resolutions, tools such as FIB-SEM tomography have allowed for a greater understanding of cells and their organelles in 3-dimensions."
- "In the past few years, it has also become possible to predict highly accurate physical molecular models to complement the experimental study of biological structures."
- "Computational techniques such as molecular dynamics simulations can be used in conjunction with empirical structure determination strategies to extend and study protein structure, conformation, and function."
- "How alterations in their structures affect their function."
- "How each hierarchical level of various extracellular matrices contributes to function (for example in bone)."
- "Early structural biologists throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries were primarily only able to study structures to the limit of the naked eye's visual acuity."
- "Now scientists could obtain the three-dimensional structures of biological molecules in atomic detail."
- "NMR spectroscopy allowed information about protein structure and dynamics to be obtained."
- "The development of more coherent electron sources, aberration correction for electron microscopes, and reconstruction software enabled the successful implementation of high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy."
- "Computational techniques such as molecular dynamics simulations can be used in conjunction with empirical structure determination strategies to extend and study protein structure, conformation, and function."