Why do you think your paper is highly cited?
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“In the field of macromolecular structure determination, AMoRe was the first programme aiming at solving a crystal structure in an automated way.”
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The paper describes a technique—and the associated computer
programme AMoRe—to solve a crystal structure when there is a good
model for a reasonable fraction of the structure in the crystal. As
the database of solved structures started a dramatic growth at the
beginning of the nineties, the method became very useful for a large
fraction of new structures. It is also useful for studies of
complexes formed from previously determined proteins. The programme
proved to be extremely efficient.
What are the circumstances which led you to your work?
The technique, known as Molecular Replacement, was a rather
ancient one, but the available implementations were based on fairly
crude approximations and/or required a substantial user
intervention. This led me to a reformulation of the technique, based
in a new representation of the molecular models and new robust
algorithms which allowed automation of the method.
Would you describe the significance of this work for your
field?
In the field of macromolecular structure determination, AMoRe was
the first programme aiming at solving a crystal structure in an
automated way. Most of the algorithms used there are still the best
available ones.
Where has this research gone since the publication of your
paper? Where do you see it going 10 years from now?
The success of the technique relies on the quality of the model
and the performance of the software. The software has not evolved
significantly, though new formulations have appeared since the
beginning of this century. On the contrary, boosted by structural
genomics projects, the search models are now improved significantly
so as to make a difficult problem a solvable one.
What lessons would you draw from your work to share with the
next generation of researchers?
To reconsider still-in-use but old procedures in light of new
developments and new hardware capabilities.
Jorge Navaza
Laboratoire de Virologie Moléculaire & Structurale
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Gif-sur-Yvette, France
cites
:
n
the interview below, Jorge Navaza talks about his highly cited
paper, "AMoRe: an automated package for molecular
replacement," (Acta Crystallogr. A 50: 157-63,
Part 2, 1 March 1994). According to the 
