EARLY HISTORY OF THE PROTEIN DATA BANK AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE NUCLEIC ACID DATABASE. Helen M. Berman, Department of Chemistry, Rutgers University, Piscataway NJ 08855.

In 1971, a handful of protein crystal structures had been studied to a point where atomic coordinates had been determined. Yet it was already apparent to a small group of crystallographers that a repository was needed for these valuable data so that they would be available to all interested researchers. Thus was born the Protein Data Bank (PDB). This talk will describe the early years of the PDB, the vision of the founding leadership, the involvement of the community, and the technology that was used to develop the archive.

The Nucleic Acid Database (NDB) was created in 1991 in order to provide a way to curate a special subset of the macromolecules contained within the PDB. In 1996 it became a direct deposition site for nucleic acids. The features of the NDB will be described as well as the procedures that have been put in place to coordinate with the PDB in the maintenance of the central macromolecular archive.

Support for this work has been provided by the NSF (BIR 9305135).