Structural biology and its applications to the health sciences

Part of the decipherment of genomic information lies in understanding the structure and function of the protein products of these genes. Protein structure is of further importance because of the molecular basis of many diseases. Structural biology is the field of research focusing on the experimental determination of the structure of biological molecules. We review the field of structural biology and its application to medical research and drug discovery, and describe the structural results recently obtained in our laboratory for the detoxifying enzyme glutathione S-transferase from the Asian mosquito Anopheles dirus species B, an important malaria vector. These enzymes have detoxifying activity toward pesticides and thus contribute to pesticide resistance in insects.