Exploring structure space - A protein structure initiative

The genome projects are changing biology by providing the genetic blueprint s of entire organisms. The blueprints are tantalizing but we cannot deduce everything we need to know from them, including the structures and detailed functions of proteins. In this paper we describe an approach for obtaining structural information about proteins on a genomic scale. We describe how structural and functional information might eventually be put together to f orm a basis for describing life at many levels. We then describe how struct ural information fits into this picture and classes of proteins for which s tructural information would be useful in a genomic context. We conclude wit h a proposal for an initiative to determine protein structures on a very la rge scale.