Development of Structural Biology in India. A Personal Perspective

Abstract:Structural biology, which is concerned with the molecular structure of biomolecules such as proteins and the relation of structure to function, has a distinguished tradition in India starting with the proposal of the coiled-coil triple helical structure of collagen by G.N. Ramachandran and G. Kartha in the mid-fifties of the last century. Another remarkable contribution from the group was the Ramachandran plot which remains the simplest and the most import descriptor and tool for validation of protein structures. Ramachandran and his colleagues made many more contributions in computational biology and theoretical crystallography. The Ramachandran tradition in computational biology and bioinformatics, fostered by V. Sasisekharn, V.S.R. Rao, C. Ramakrishnan and others, ebbed for a while, but it is in full flow again. Ramachandran also helped initiate NMR studies on biomolecules which are being pursued in a few centres in the country. What Ramachandran wished to do, but could not was the initiation of biological macromolecular crystallography, which is central to structural biology, in India. It was subsequently left to one of the two schools he established, the Molecular Biophysics Unit of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, to pioneer this area in the country. From modest beginnings, the work has now radiated to about thirty institutions in India. The current Indian efforts in the area encompass almost all aspects of modern biology and are poised to embark on endeavours such as inhibitor (drug) design. The achievements of Indian structural biology have been substantial and the current indications point to a still brighter future.