The TB Structural Genomics Consortium (TBSGC) is a worldwide consortium of scientists developing a foundation for

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

diagnosis and treatment by determining the three-dimensional structures of

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...

s from ''M. tuberculosis'' founded in 2000 as a part of the

Protein Structure Initiative The Protein Structure Initiative (PSI) was a USA based project that aimed at accelerating discovery in structural genomics and contribute to understanding biological function. Funded by the U.S. National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS ...

. The consortium seeks to solve structures of proteins that are of great interest to the TB biology community. A major goal of the consortium is to have a putative function for every ORF in the TB

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

. __TOC__

Activities

As of June 2006, 82 TB protein structures have been determined, 15 since January 1, 2006. The database of linked

structural A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

and functional information that has been constructed using this information can form a lasting basis for understanding ''M. tuberculosis'' pathogenesis and for structure-based drug design. As of June 2006, the TB Structural Genomics Consortium consists of 430 active members in 148 laboratories from 83 institutions across 15 countries. Consortium laboratories are collectively responsible for 3.3% of all protein structures in the

protein data bank The Protein Data Bank (PDB) is a database for the three-dimensional structural data of large biological molecules such as proteins and nucleic acids, which is overseen by the Worldwide Protein Data Bank (wwPDB). This structural data is obtained a ...

and have extensive records of methods development. Consortium members have carried out a pilot project on the structural genomics of a

hyperthermophile A hyperthermophile is an organism that thrives in extremely hot environments—from 60 °C (140 °F) upward. An optimal temperature for the existence of hyperthermophiles is often above 80 °C (176 °F). Hyperthermophiles are of ...

that has identified bottlenecks in the structure determination process and resulted in the development of methodologies for high-throughput structure determination and analysis. The consortium has five core facilities (located at

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now i ...

Los Alamos National Lab Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in ...

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

, Los Angeles and

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

) that carry out an increasing fraction of routine tasks such as protein production, crystallization and X-ray data collection. Members of the consortium improve their productivity by sending materials to these facilities, receiving the resulting products or data, and reporting this activity to the database. This helps to minimize redundant pursuits of targets. This structural and functional information is publicly available. The five core facilities available to consortium members provide services for cloning, expression, and purification of proteins as well as crystallization and subsequent diffraction and data analysis of protein crystals. Furthermore, a database has been developed to record all activity done within the consortium. This database also tracks the movement of materials between members and allows the up to the minute status to be recorded and available to all other members.

References

External links

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