Support for the Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank and the Dichroweb Analysis Server

Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy is an established and valuable technique for examining protein structure, dynamics, and folding, and is regularly used as a standard method in a large number of UK biological and chemical laboratories. This is a proposal to create a comprehensive electronic archiving and analysis resource for CD spectroscopy that can be used by the structural biology and bioinformatics communities. It will include the running, curation and development of the Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank (PCDDB), a deposition and searchable data bank for circular dichroism spectra of biomacromolecules. The PCDDB will be a resource for structural molecular biology and bioinformatics, and a public archive for data sharing of spectroscopic data to parallel the Protein Data Bank (PDB), a long-existing and valuable reference data bank for protein crystal and NMR data. This project also includes the operation, upgrading and maintenance of DICHROWEB, a widely-used user-friendly online server for the analysis of circular dichroism data. Together these two bioinformatics facilities will provide a comprehensive package of enabling and supportive resources in CD spectroscopy for the Structural Biology and Bioinformatics communities.

Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy is an established and valuable technique for examining protein structure, dynamics, and folding, and is regularly used as a fundemental method in a large number of biological and chemical laboratories. This is a proposal to create, curate and maintain a comprehensive electronic archiving and analysis resource for CD spectroscopy that can be used by the academic and industrial structural biology and bioinformatics communities. It will include the running, curation and development of the Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank (PCDDB), a deposition and searchable data bank for circular dichroism spectra of biomacromolecules. The aim of this data bank is to provide open access and public archiving facilities for circular dichroism spectral data. This project also will include the development of a suite of support tools, such as validation software (which will have benefit for both ensuring the quality of data in the data bank and establishing standards for spectroscopic data used by the academic and industrial structural biology communities, and will be developed as both a deposition-linked online resource and a standalone downloadable version) and spectral matching tools for identification of similar/related spectra and extraction of structural information. This project also includes the upgrading, maintenance and continued operation of DICHROWEB, a widely-used user-friendly online server for the analysis of circular dichroism data. Together these two bioinformatics facilities will provide a comprehensive package of enabling and supportive resources in CD spectroscopy for the structural biology and bioinformatics communities.