The
modern field of Structural Biology essentially originated
at Caltech in the 1940's with Linus Pauling. Pauling
pioneered the structure -based approach to the study of
biological systems that has formed the basis for most
subsequent advances in understanding the molecular
mechanisms of biological systems. The objective of the
present Structural Biology group at Caltech is to
continue in the tradition established by Pauling to use
the information obtained from high resolution structures
to understand the molecular basis of biological
processes. Current protein crystallographic efforts focus
upon cell surface proteins involved in the immune
response, nervous system and signal transduction
pathways, integral membrane proteins, metalloproteins,
and hyper- thermostable proteins. The Center for
Macromolecular Crystallography at Caltech includes modern
equipment for the collection and analysis of x-ray
diffraction data derived from crystals of macromolecules.
X-ray data collection hardware includes two x-ray
generators, and two phosphor imaging plate detectors.
Computational analysis is done using Silicon Graphics and
Digital Equipment alpha workstations. NMR facilities
include a 600 MHz NMR.