The Protein Data Bank (PDB) was established at Brookhaven National Laboratories (BNL) (1) in 1971 as an archive for biological macromolecular crystal structures. In the beginning the archive held seven structures, and with each year a handful more were deposited. In the 1980s the number of deposited structures began to increase dramatically. This was due to the improved technology for all aspects of the crystallographic process, the addition of structures determined by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods, and changes in the community views about data sharing. By the early 1990s the majority of journals required a PDB accession code and at least one funding agency (National Institute of General Medical Sciences) adopted the guidelines published by the International Union of Crystallography (IUCr) requiring data deposition for all structures.
The mode of access to PDB data has changed over the years as a result of improved technology, notably the availability of the WWW replacing distribution solely via magnetic media. Further, the need to analyze diverse data sets required the development of modern data management systems.
Initial use of the PDB had been limited to a small group of experts involved in structural research. Today depositors to the PDB have varying expertise in the techniques of X-ray crystal structure determination, NMR, cryoelectron microscopy and theoretical modeling. Users are a very diverse group of researchers in biology, chemistry and computer scientists, educators, and students at all levels. The tremendous influx of data soon to be fueled by the structural genomics initiative, and the increased recognition of the value of the data toward understanding biological function, demand new ways to collect, organize and distribute the data.
In October 1998, the management of the PDB became the responsibility of the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics (RCSB). In general terms, the vision of the RCSB is to create a resource based on the most modern technology that facilitates the use and analysis of structural data and thus creates an enabling resource for biological research. Specifically in this paper, we describe the current procedures for data deposition, data processing and data distribution of PDB data by the RCSB. In addition, we address the issues of data uniformity. We conclude with some current developments of the PDB.