The term "Protein Structure Factory" was chosen to represent a common initiative of the German Human Genome Project (DHGP) and structural biologists from the Berlin area aimed at the broad-scale analysis of proteins.
The Protein Structure Factory is established to characterize proteins encoded by the genes or cDNAs available at the Berlin Resource Center of DHGP. At a later stage, it may analyze various sets of input proteins selected by criteria of potential structural novelty or medical or biotechnological usefulness. It represents an integrative approach to structure analysis combining the computer-based analysis of genes by bioinformatics techniques, automated gene expression and purification of gene products, generation of a biophysical fingerprint of the proteins and the determination of their three-dimensional structures either in solution by NMR spectroscopy or in the crystalline state by X-ray diffraction.
