Beyond History: The List of The Most Well Studied Human Protein Structures

Of 20,000 or so canonical human protein sequences, as of July 2020, 6,747 proteins have had their full or partial medium to high-resolution structures determined by x-ray crystallography or other methods. Which of these proteins dominate the protein database (the PDB) and why? In this paper, we list the 272 top protein structures based on the number of their PDB depositions. This set of proteins accounts for more than 40% of all available human PDB entries and represent past trend and current status for protein science. We briefly discuss the relationship which some of the prominent protein structures have with protein biophysics research and mention their relevance to human diseases. The information may inspire researchers who are new to protein science, but it also provides a year 2020 snap-shot for the state of protein science.