The conceptual framework in natural sciences depends on structural images of materials under study. Mental images profoundly influence experimental approaches to problems in molecular biology as, for example, studies of enzymes, hormones, genes, antibodies, transport processes, and transmembrane signaling. A clear understanding of the structural dynamics of macromolecules is often instrumental in experimental design. Structural biology is an exciting frontier in biological research, made possible by the advent of sophisticated instrumentation that analyze, at the molecular level, macromolecules and other structures of interest. Thus, physics, mathematics and chemistry began to be applied to problems of biological structure and this marriage of physical sciences and biology spawned the discipline of molecular biophysics.
Structural biology is poised to make pivotal contributions to life sciences during the next decade.
Two parallel advances are of particular significance. Biologically, the development of molecular genetics made available abundant supplies of interesting, but previously scarce, materials. These substances could be manipulated further by applying reverse genetics, site-directed mutagenesis and fused gene constructs. Genetic manipulations were also used to study biological mechanisms, such as protein folding, membrane proteins, receptor and antibody diversity. Finally, the structure of supramolecular assemblages and organelles, which are of considerable biological interest but are unsuited for crystallography, can now be analyzed using advanced electron microscopy and superstructure imaging.