Macromolecular Modeling Blog ™

As from next week, the RCSB PDB will provide web widgets – small bits of code, which provide PDB functionality that you can embed in your own website. All of the widgets that are provided are 100% self contained JavaScript files and will be maintained by the RSCB PDB. We’ve taken some of those widgets for a test drive.

The first two widgets are convinent access tools, to the left a tool for the comparison of two PDB’s (either sequence comparison or structural comparison) and to the right a simple Molecule of the month widget for those that like to be kept updated at all times.

Maybe the coolest widgets though are the “Tag Library” and “Image Library”: how convinent is it to wrap any pdb ID with a “span” tag and instantly allow your readers to view a snapshot of its structure or instantly download the PDB file. Hover over the tagged words in the next paragraph to get an impression (Taken from PDB-news:)

Nobel Prize Awarded for the Structure of the Ribosome

Three structural biologists have won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome — Ramakrishnan, V. (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology), Steitz, T.A.(Yale University), and Yonath, A.(Weizmann Institute of Science). The depositions of their first complete ribosome subunit structures (1fjg, 1ffk, and 1fka) almost a decade ago ushered structural biology into a new era. Since that time, more than 120 ribosome structures consisting of 50S, 30S subunits and complete 70S ribosomes have been contributed by these Nobel scientists. The structures, complexed with and without antibiotics, tRNAs, mRNAs, initiation factors, and release factors, provide a basis for understanding how the ribosome works and are useful tools for drug development…..

The RCSB PDB Image Library widget embeds an image of a structure based on PDB ID. The image size and type of assembly (asymmetric or biological) can be customized. Using this widget means that the images don’t have to be downloaded on your server, and links never have to be checked or updated – the library maintains this automatically.

I believe these widgets would become an inseperatable part of every structural biology web-site and definatly of this blog. I take my hat off to the RCSB PDB and breathlessly await the next widgets to appear.