Industrial perspective on X-ray data collection and analysis

Protein crystallography methods applied by research teams in the pharmaceutical industry to support the process of discovery of new medicines are not greatly different from those used by academic structural biology groups. However, owing to the specific aims of the pharmaceutical industry, the approaches and working practices are often quite distinct. This applies to both the determination of novel structures of drug targets and complexes of these targets with potential drugs. To make any significant impact on ongoing medicinal chemistry projects, crystal structures have to be delivered on time and must provide answers to specific questions. Owing to the high number of crystal structures typically solved by industrial research groups, development of technology and computational methods which speed up the process and increase throughput is of vital importance. This paper presents an overview of current approaches to X-ray data collection and processing within the industrial environment, with examples of how technology is used to address the challenges structural biology faces in this `high-throughput-everything' period.