Space-based growth has eliminated many of those problems, although it has taken several flights for scientists to learn the best methods for crystal growth. And just having one crystal is not enough. We need a constant supply of crystals to determine the three-dimensional structure. Thus, the public has read the same story about the same specimens being carried again. They had to be as scientists focused on a different aspect of the structure and, in the process of X-raying the specimen, destroyed it.
Science demands hundreds of specimens and tests before accepting a conclusion.
Now, the payoff is about to arrive. In seven years, space-based PCG work research has defined the structures of 30 proteins. Often these are represented, as in this story, as models generated by a CMC computer program called Ribbons. Delucas listed several therapies that are in various stages of human clinical trials. It should be stressed that no cures have been announced, and that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration must review the results and then decide whether to authorize use by the medical community.