Phase 1
The first phase of the Protein Structure Initiative (PSI-1) lasted from June 2000 until September 2005, and had a budget of $270 million funded primarily by NIGMS with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. PSI-1 saw the establishment of nine pilot centers focusing on structural genomics studies of a range of organisms, including Arabidopsis thaliana, Caenorhabditis elegans and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. During this five-year period over 1,100 protein structures were determined, over 700 of which were classified as "unique" due to their < 30% sequence similarity with other known protein structures.
The primary goal of PSI-1, to develop methods to streamline the structure determination process, resulted in an array of technical advances. Several methods developed during PSI-1 enhanced expression of recombinant proteins in systems like Escherichia coli, Pichia pastoris and insect cell lines. New streamlined approaches to cell cloning, expression and protein purification were also introduced, in which robotics and software platforms were integrated into the protein production pipeline to minimize required manpower, increase speed, and lower costs.
Read more about this topic: Protein Structure Initiative
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