Celebrating 50 Years of the Protein Data Bank Archive

In 1971, the structural biology community established the single worldwide archive for macromolecular structure data–the Protein Data Bank (PDB). From its inception, the PDB has embraced a culture of open access, leading to its widespread use by the research community. PDB data are used by hundreds of data resources and millions of users exploring fundamental biology, energy, and biomedicine.

Structural biology and structural bioinformatics have had an enormous impact on our understanding of the mechanism and function of biological macromolecules. The PDB acts as a custodian for all these data, representing a repository of the vast majority of the achievements and milestones of the structural biology community.

In 2021, wwPDB celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the PDB with symposia, materials, and more.

• PDB50 Meetings and Symposia
• Inaugural event: A special symposium celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Protein Data Bank (May 4-5, 2021; watch presentation videos)
• Transactions Symposium 2021: Function Follows Form: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Protein Data Bank (July 30-31, 2021).
  This virtual event is part of the Annual Meeting of the American Crystallographic Association. Watch Video Presentations
• Understanding Enzyme Function in 3D: Celebrating 50 Years of the Protein Data Bank (Aug 25, 2021); part of the Fall ACS Meeting.
• Biophysical Society Celebrates 50 Years of the PDB (October 6, 2021; watch presentation videos)
• Bringing Molecular Structure to Life: 50 Years of the PDB (October 20-22, 2021) EMBL Conference.
• Protein Data Bank at 50: Accessing, Understanding, and Assessing PDB Data hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry Chemical Information and Computer Applications Group (November 16 and November 18; watch presentation videos of day 1 and day 2 )
• 50 Years of the PDB and the Frontier of Structural Biology in Asia: A satellite symposium (Nov 24) of the Biophysical Society of Japan (Nov 25-27, 2021; poster prizes awarded)
• 2021 Calendar and images: Celebrating 50 Years of Protein Data Bank
• Crystallography: Protein Data Bank. Nature New Biology 233, 223 (1971). doi: 10.1038/newbio233223b0
• PDB40: On October 28-30, 2011, a unique meeting was held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the PDB.
• Bioinformatics/Structure 25th Anniversary of PDB & 10th Anniversary of Swiss-Prot Databases (November 17-21, 1996; Jerusalem, Israel) | photos
• PDB50 logos: long (PNG | EPS) compact (PNG | EPS)
• PDB50 Virtual Meeting Background (PNG)

How the PDB changed biology

Issue contains reviews that celebrates scientific areas profoundly touched by the creation of the PDB

The PDB in JBC

Collection of Journal of Biological Chemistry publications that highlights some seminal PDB structures

Nature Methods

Vol 18, Issue 5, May 2021

Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

Vol 28, Issue 5, May 2021

Collection: PDB 50th Anniversary: celebrating the future of structural biology

ASBMB Today

Vol 20, Issue 3, March 2021

The Journal of Biochemistry

Vol 171, Issue 1, January 2022