Towards a knowledge-based system of structural biology

Many of the steps needed to put the study of structural biology on a quantitative footing have been implemented, with the ultimate goal of putting structural information in computer-readable form. The way is now open to automate or semi-automate the capture, segmentation, display, storage and retrieval of structural information. This can be achieved, in principle, through building a computerized knowledge-base in structural biology. The general framework for building such a knowledge-base and the authors´ approach to the specific problem of knowledge representation are discussed briefly. The progress made to date toward these long-term goals is briefly reviewed