WORLD WIDE WEB ACCESS TO THE BIOLOGICAL CRYSTALLIZATION DATABASE. Gary L. Gilliland, Michael Tung, Jane E. Ladner, The Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology of the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute and National Institute of Standards and Technology, 9600 Gudelsky Dr., Rockville, MD 20850, USA

The NIST/NASA/CARB Biological Macromolecule Crystallization Database (BMCD) is now available on the World Wide Web (http://ibm4.carb.nist.gov:4400/bmcd/bmcd.html). The database entries include data abstracted from published crystallographic reports. Each entry consists of information describing the biological macromolecule crystallized, crystal parameters, crystallization conditions for each crystal form and literature references. This is the first crystallographic database available with full search capabilities over the internet. The BMCD serves as the NASA Protein Crystal Growth Archive in that it contains protocols and results of crystallization experiments undertaken in microgravity (space). For the microgravity experiments, the database records the results, whether successful or not, from NASA-sponsored protein crystal growth experiments in microgravity and from microgravity crystallization studies sponsored by other international organizations. The BMCD was designed as a tool to assist X-ray crystallographers in the development of protocols to crystallize biological macromolecules, those that have previously been crystallized, and those that have not been crystallized.