科学家发现绝大部份的疾病 ，都源自于蛋白质活动的异常所导致 ，而近年来的研究发现 ，要破解蛋白活动的关键 ，在于建立蛋白质的三度空间的数据，因此由瑞典医学大学(Swedish medical university) Karolinska 研究院(Karolinska Institutet) 的科学家所领导， 成立了一个跨国的研究机构SGC(Structural Genomics Consortium) ，打算从三度空间的蛋白资料下手，来加速相关领域的研究 。
据了解参与这的科学家 ，来自瑞典 、英国以及加拿大 ，自从2004 年设立SGC这个研究联盟以来 ，其主要的目的就锁定在跟人类疾病相关的蛋白质身上，特别是希望能够藉由跨国跨机构间的研究 ，透过分享结构蛋白质数据 ，加速特定药物分子的研发 ，参加这个联盟的人士 ，除了有学术界的科学家外，还包括了像阿斯特捷利康药厂(AstraZeneca) 等的机构。
至 2007年以来，这个跨国的合作计划，针对人类特定的药物蛋白质结构，总共解出了 386个特殊的结构，目前研究人员把这样的资源共享出来，希望能提供给更多的科学家使用，共同的加速药物研发的速度。
(资料来源 : biocompare)
英文原文：
Unique Partnership Produces Life-Critical 3D Structures
3/28/2007
| Source: Karolinska Institutet |
Most diseases are caused by malfunctions in the body’s complex protein machinery. The next generation of drugs will be designed on the basis of 3D protein models that scientists are creating. The Structural Genomics Consortium laboratory at Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet has now made available the structure of PARP3, the four hundredth structure in this unique project to chart the body’s proteins.
advertisement "The structural data from the SGC will be a unique resource for accelerating the early phase of drug development projects," says Jan Lundberg, Executive Vice President Discovery Research at AstraZeneca. "We see great value in this kind of focused and effective work identifying human proteins, and congratulate the SGC on its advances."
Since the SGC’s goal – to have 386 structures available by June 2007 – has been met by a wide margin, it is also a victory for the unusual partnership between the public and private sectors. The SGC is a charitable organization and publishes the 3D structural models it determines without delay or priority rights for its private or public financers.
"This result wouldn’t have been possible if it had been done by individual research groups focusing on their own special interests," says Professor Jan Carlstedt-Duke, Dean at Karolinska Institutet. "The dialogue with the scientific community has also ensured that the results come to the benefit of other scientists."
The structural models are not only powerful tools for drug development, they are also of fundamental importance to our understanding of disease mechanisms and of how proteins operate.
