Tools And Resources For Circular Dichroism Spectroscopy

Circular Dichroism (CD) Spectroscopy is a popular method in biophysics for the characterisation of the structure, dynamics, and stability of proteins. Our consortium has developed a number of widely-used tools for analyses and access to CD-related resources. These include the Protein Circular Dichroism Data Bank [PCDDB] (http://pcddb.cryst.bbk.ac.uk/home.php), a freely-accessible deposition and retrieval site for protein CD spectra and associated meta-data, which includes the “gold-standard” SP175 and SMP180 reference data sets (currently used for both spectral analyses and software development), a data validation site (ValiDichro), software for spectral data processing and component analyses (CDtoolX), and websites for secondary structure analyses (DichroWeb), spectral comparisons (DichroMatch and DichroCompare), and for predicting spectra from 3-dimensional structures (PDB2CD), as well as for undertaking structure comparisons (2StrucCompare). Accompanying these tools are YouTube educational videos (located at the “PCDDB Channel”) on topics such as good practice in instrument and spectral calibration, sample preparations, types of analyses, such as singular value deconvolutions and Data Bank depositions and access. New tools and resources continue to be developed for use in both research and teaching. Supported by grants from U.K. BBSRC (to BAW and RWJ).