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Crystallography and drug design

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Abstract

Drugs treat diseases by blocking or modifying the functions of molecules such as proteins. Knowledge of the crystal structures of proteins is of tremendous help in designing effective drugs as the structures provide precise details of the mechanism of action and inhibition of the proteins at the atomic level. The impact of X-ray crystallography, by which the 3D structures are elucidated, on the efforts to combat diseases has been presented with a few examples.

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Correspondence to K. Suguna.

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K Suguna is a Professor at the Molecular Biophysics Unit, IISc, Bangalore. She is interested in determining the structures of biological macromolecules by X-ray crystallography to understand their structure-function relationships.

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Suguna, K. Crystallography and drug design. Reson 19, 1093–1103 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-014-0135-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-014-0135-6

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