Abstract
Protein crystallography is a very powerful method to determine the three-dimensional structures of biological macro molecules. Protein structures at atomic resolution is very important not only biologically but also industrially. For exam ple, such structural information can be used for a rational drug design (structure based drug design: SBDD) . However, it is often extremely difficult to obtain the well-diffracting crystals, and the development of techniques to improve crystal quality is a serious problem yet to be solved in protein crystallography. Recently, the microgravity environment attracts attention, which provides the possibility to obtain the improved-quality protein crystals in their larger size and in better molecular order. Here, the current status of protein crystallization, including utilization of microgravity is reviewed from the view points of structural biology and SBDD.
