( oad range of biomedical researchers wil...)The Shapes Of Life: NIGMS Project Yields More Than 1,000 Protein Structures

“There are a lot of proteins that are incredibly important to understanding human biology and medicine, yet we know very little about most of them,?said Norvell. “The PSI will provide important information about these molecules so vital to life.?/p>

The nine pilot centers participating in the first phase of the PSI are:

* The Berkeley Structural Genomics Center, http://www.strgen.org/

* The Center for Eukaryotic Structural Genomics, http://www.uwstructuralgenomics.org/

* The Joint Center for Structural Genomics, http://www.jcsg.org/

* The Midwest Center for Structural Genomics, http://www.mcsg.anl.gov/

* The New York Structural Genomics Research Consortium, http://www.nysgrc.org/

* The Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium, http://www.nesg.org/

* The Southeast Collaboratory for Structural Genomics, http://www.secsg.org/

* The Structural Genomics of Pathogenic Protozoa Consortium, http://www.sgpp.org/

* The TB Structural Genomics Consortium, http://www.doe-mbi.ucla.edu/TB/

The pilot phase of the PSI will end in mid-2005. Centers for the second phase will be announced in July 2005.

In addition to NIGMS, the PSI currently receives funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a component of the National Institutes of Health.

For more information about the PSI, please visit http://www.nigms.nih.gov/psi/.