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Making the step from chemistry to biology and back

Nature Chemical Biology volume 3, pages 681–684 (2007)Cite this article

There is a gap between the nanoscale level of molecular structure and the micron-sized level of cellular ultrastructure that is difficult to probe experimentally. New techniques and simulated images are revealing its secrets.

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Figure 1: Electron tomography may be used to capture three-dimensional images of large portions of cells.
Figure 2: X-ray crystallographic techniques are being used to determine the structures of increasingly challenging subjects.
Figure 3: A combination of electron microscopy, X-ray crystallography and modeling was used to determine the structure of a clathrin coat.
Figure 4: Extensive cellular, biochemical and structural information is available for several systems, allowing creation of a convincing illustration of the cellular environment.
Figure 5: Convincing illustrations may be created with or without experimental support.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by grant DUE-0618688 from the US National Science Foundation. This is manuscript 18982 from the Scripps Research Institute.

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  1. David S. Goodsell is in the Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California 92037, USA. goodsell@scripps.edu,

    David S Goodsell

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Goodsell, D. Making the step from chemistry to biology and back. Nat Chem Biol 3, 681–684 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio1107-681

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