X-ray crystallography in drug discovery

Macromolecular X-ray crystallography is an important and powerful technique in drug discovery, used by pharmaceutical companies in the discovery process of new medicines. The detailed analysis of crystal structures of protein-ligand complexes allows the study of the specific interactions of a particular drug with its protein target at the atomic level. It is used to design and improve drugs. The starting point of these studies is the preparation of suitable crystals of complexes with potential ligands, which can be achieved by using different strategies described in this chapter. In addition, an introduction to X-ray crystallography is given, highlighting the fundamental steps necessary to determine the three-dimensional structure of protein-ligand complexes, as well as some of the tools and criteria to validate crystal structures available in databases.