Recent Advances in Electron Cryomicroscopy, Part A: Volume 81. Questo articolo non è disponibile.Recent Advances in Electron Cryomicroscopy, Part A: Volume 81

Structural genomics is the systematic determination of 3-D structures of proteins representative of the range of protein structure and function found in nature. The goal is to build a body of structural information that will predict the structure and potential function for almost any protein from knowledge of its coding sequence. This is essential information for understanding the functioning of the human proteome, the ensemble of tens of thousands of proteins specified by the human genome.

While most structural biologists pursue structures of individual proteins or protein groups, specialists in structural genomics pursue structures of proteins on a genome wide scale. This implies large-scale cloning, expression and purification. One main advantage of this approach is economy of scale.

• Examines the three dimensional structure of all proteins of a given organism, by experimental methods such as X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy
• Looks at structural genomics as a foundation of drug discovery as discovering new medicines is becoming more challenging and the pharmaceutical industry is looking to new technologies to help in this mission

Dr. Vidya Venkataram obtained her PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore where she won the Young Scientist award for her PhD work. After a brief experience at the Pennsylvania State University, USA and the US Vitamins Pharmaceuticals, she moved to Toronto where she functioned as Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Fellow in Regenerative Medicine at the Toronto General Hospital and the Toronto Medical Laboratories. She then held assignment as a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Guelph. She is currently a Visiting Scientist at the Department of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto. She has over 45 publications and has contributed a book. Her primary research interests are in the areas of viruses, virus-like particles, food security, genetic engineering and biotechnology. She lives with her family in Toronto.