These cheery loops and swirls may look like confetti, but don't celebrate. It's a close-up of deadly Salmonella typhimurium, just one of a set of protein blueprints drawn from some of the most lethal diseases on the planet, killers like cholera and anthrax. The idea: If you can get a good look at the proteins, you can find places where other molecules — aka drugs — can latch on and exterminate the bugs.
The proteins may be just a few nanometers wide, but researchers need a really big camera to take their pictures.1 Northwestern University structural biologist Wayne Anderson uses a synchrotron to slam x-rays into crystallized proteins. The intensity and direction of the x-ray reflections show the locations of the atoms, which provide the data for three different kinds of pictures: a structural map, a diagram of folded proteins, and a blob that shows where a drug might attach. "If you know what the inside of the lock looks like," Anderson says, "you can design the key." He plans to scan 20 pathogens and upload their mugshots to an open-access database. Then he'll let more prosecutorially minded researchers find the right drugs to execute them.
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