Commemorating 75 Years of Discovery and Innovation at the NSF
On May 10, 2025, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) commemorates its 75th anniversary.
The NSF has been a major supporter of RCSB PDB, and enables RCSB.org data and services to provide infrastructure for new ideas in research. Visit NSF.gov for to learn how NSF's decades-long support for the open-access database has facilitated pioneering scientific advancements and medical treatments.
Science communication intern Xinyi Christine Zhang (Harvard) has created posters to celebrate the science made possible by the NSF and RCSB PDB. Explore these images and learn how protein research is changing our world.
NSF Opportunities and Grand Challenges
Biotechnology |
Emerging Industries in the Bioeconomy |
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GFP, a tiny fluorescent protein from jellyfish, has revolutionized cell biology. GFP and CRISPR are both highlighted on the NSF History Wall. |
Cascade and CRISPR help bacteria remember how to fight viral infection. This technology is transforming our understanding of gene regulation. |
Building a Better Future |
Artificial Intelligence |
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Researchers are looking to Nature to find ways to dispose of discarded plastic, bringing biology to industry along the way. |
50 years of open access to the PDB has accelerated scientific advances in protein structure architecture and AI/ML prediction tools. |
PDB Supports the Goals of the NSF
Connections between the PDB and the U.S. National Science Foundation 2022–2026 Strategic Plan
Empower
- RCSB PDB is committed to training, supporting, and empowering a community of researchers and future scientists
Discover
- RCSB.org tools drive research across all NSF directorates, illuminating biology from Agriculture to Zoology
- PDB structures aid understanding societal challenges, such as the physics of aging
- CryoEM resolution revolution and predicted protein structures are advancing the frontiers of research
- RCSB PDB accelerates data-intensive research through advanced cyberinfrastructure
- Structural biology provides foundational knowledge into the rules that make life work
Impact
- RCSB PDB safeguards structural biology data generated with NSF funding of more than half a billion dollars worth of NSF data over the lifetime of the PDB
- PDB structures have contributed data to >1 million published research papers
RCSB PDB Core Operations are funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (DBI-2321666), the US Department of Energy (DE-SC0019749), and the National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant R01GM157729.
