Perspectives on the 50th anniversary of synchrotron radiation protein crystallography

In 2026, it will be the 50th Anniversary of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) SR and protein crystallography initiative led by Keith Hodgson and published in 1976. This seminal research led to an explosion of experimental protein crystal structures these past 5 decades whereby 90% of protein crystal structures are determined at synchrotron X-radiation facilities. It is the vast number of structures now totalling 240,000 in the Protein Data Bank that underpinned the AlphaFold prediction of protein folds.