Proteopedia: Bridging the Rift Between 3D Structure & Function of Biomacromolecules

Proteopedia is a wiki web resource, http://proteopedia.org, which aids in understanding of the structure/function relationship of biomacromolecules. The `3D' images on each page are surrounded by descriptive text containing hyperlinks that change the appearance (view, representations, colors or labels) of the adjacent 3D structure to reflect the concept discussed in the text (see figure below). This makes the complex structural information readily accessible and comprehensible, even to non-structural biologists. Using Proteopedia, scientists and students can easily create descriptions of biomacromolecules linked to their 3D structure, e.g., a page on the way inhibitors block HIV Protease, http://proteopedia.org/w/HIV-1_protease. Pages can be viewed on computers and tablets via the molecular viewer JSmol. Content is being added by ~2,600 Proteopedia's users from more than 50 countries, in a dozen different languages, including Arabic, Russian & Chinese. Members of the scientific community are invited to request a Proteopedia user account, at no cost, to create and edit pages, see: http://proteopedia.org/w/Special:RequestAccount.