Macromolecular Crystallography in India. A Historical Overview

Abstract

India has a distinguished tradition in crystallography and structural biology. However, biological macromolecular crystallography in the country has had a somewhat delayed start on account of paucity of adequate funds and insufficient interactions between crystallographers and biochemists. Preliminary results in the area began to appear in the early eighties. The support provided by the Department of Science & Technology in the mid eighties under its thrust area programme for macromolecular crystallographic studies at the Molecular Biophysics Unit of the Indian Institute of Science gave a major impetus to work in the area. The Bangalore centre also came to be recognised as a national nucleus for the development of the area in the country. Since then, over the years, biological macromolecular crystallography has grown into a major activity in India encompassing nearly 20 institutions and close to twice as many research groups. It is also now at the centre stage of modern biological research in India. The problems addressed by biological crystallographers in the country span a wide spectrum and their efforts have made considerable international impact. Collective initiatives such as those involving microbial pathogens and structure-based inhibitor design have also begun to emerge.