Bonds and Bytes: the Odyssey of Structural Biology

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in Structural Biology, emphasizing integrative approaches that combine computational, experimental, and AI techniques to model complex biological systems across multiple scales.

Contribution

It highlights recent developments in computational and experimental methods, especially AI, and discusses the integration of diverse data types for improved biological modeling.

Findings

Advances in AI techniques for structural biology.

Integration of multiple data types enhances model accuracy.

Future directions include more comprehensive multi-scale modeling.

Abstract

Characterizing structural and dynamic properties of proteins and large macromolecular assemblies is crucial to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying biological functions. In the field of Structural Biology, no single method comprehensively reveals the behavior of biological systems across various spatio-temporal scales. Instead, we have a versatile toolkit of techniques, each contributing a piece to the overall puzzle. Integrative Structural Biology combines different techniques to create accurate and precise multi-scale models that expand our understanding of complex biological systems. This review outlines recent advancements in computational and experimental methods in Structural Biology, with special focus on recent Artificial Intelligence techniques, emphasizes integrative approaches that combine different types of data for precise spatio-temporal modeling, and provides an outlook into future directions of this field.