Three-dimensional structures are a key element in understanding biological processes and play a central role in the discovery of new lead drugs. The Israel Structural Proteomics Center (ISPC) was established by scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science, to increase the efficiency of protein structure determination.

The ISPC is funded as a national center by the Ministry of Science and Technology, to support Israeli academia and industry in all stages of protein structure determination. The center's unique combination of scientific expertise and state-of-the-art instrumentation enables research into high throughput (HTP), parallel, robotic production and the crystallization of proteins. The center is also supported by the Divadol Foundation for Technology Development, and is one of the principal nodes in the Structural Proteomics in Europe (SPINE) project, funded by the European Commission.

The ISPC, headed by Prof. Joel Sussman, is located in the Department of Structural Biology at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

The center has capabilities for:

·             Cloning into a large number of vectors

·             Expression in bacteria and yeast

·             Purification and screening of folding conditions

·             High throughput robotic crystallization

·             Data collection at X-ray sources

·             Protein Structure Solution, refinement and analysis

·             It's possible to view the 3D structures of proteins with the Jean Goldwurm 3D Visualization Theater