The evolving role of structural biology in pharma: integration of X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy and beyond

Chrencik, J.E.; Su, H.-P.; Gomez Llorente, Y.; Palte, R.L.; Klein, D.J.; Hayes, R.P.; Antine, S.P.; Asmar-Rovira, G.A.; Bertoletti, N.; Byrne, N.J.; Carroll, B.L.; Cordeiro, C.D.; Curfman, K.; Dutko, J.; Eddins, M.J.; Fischmann, T.; Govindarajan, B.; Hecksel, C.W.; Ho, T.; Hollenstein, K.; Hong, M.R.; Hruza, A.; Ishchenko, A.; Jaime-Garza, M.; Jaremko, M.J.; Knox, H.L.; Kostas, J.; Krishnamurthy, H.; Manolaridis, I.; Noland, C.L.; Partridge, A.T.; Patel, S.B.; Reichert, P.; Reid, J.C.; Felisberto-Rodrigues, C.; Shintre, C.A.; Shipman, J.M.; Tamilselvan, E.; Walker, M.E.; Walker, S.N.; Wang, R.; Wright, K.M.; Yen, T.-J.; Yoo, B.-K.; Gabelli, S.B.

doi:10.1107/S2059798326004390

Figure 3
Timeline of the impact of structural biology at MSD (∼1980–2026). Top: evolution of MSD structural biology infrastructure and contributions to the field. Key highlights include early in-house X-ray sources (e.g. Nicolet and Rigaku generators); the founding of IMCA; leadership in definition of mmCIF community standards and Halgren's Merck Molecular Force Field, MMFF94; collaborations in microgravity crystallization on the International Space Station (SpaceX-CRS-3 in 2014 and SpaceX-CRS-10 in 2017 using HH-PCF hardware, with pembrolizumab crystals grown in space); the automatization of crystallography with robots for crystallization, crystallization imagers and UV nanocrystal detectors. Automatization in protein expression and purification is shown with the Ambr 15. 2018 saw the establishment of the Cryo-EM Center of Excellence with the acquisition of a Krios G3 (Thermo Fisher Scientific), with expansion in 2022 to Krios G4, Glacios and Arctis instruments and site-wide availability of Leica and Vitrobot plungers for sample preparation, and subsequent upgrades through 2025. Bottom: representative FDA-approved or late-stage MSD therapeutics enabled or accelerated by structural biology are positioned near their approval/development milestones, illustrating translational impact across the portfolio. Created in BioRender. Gabelli, S. (2026), https:// BioRender.com/syboeqk.

STRUCTURAL
BIOLOGY

ISSN: 2059-7983

Volume 82| Part 6| June 2026| Pages 587-602

https://doi.org/10.1107/S2059798326004390

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