# 4.1 Reading a PDB File

> Reading a PDB File (Module 4: The Bioinformatician's Toolkit). Key concept: PDB file format & metadata. Explain what the Protein Data Bank is and what depositing a structure commits you to.

Reading a PDB File (Module 4: The Bioinformatician's Toolkit). Key concept: PDB file format & metadata. Explain what the Protein Data Bank is and what depositing a structure commits you to.

- Explain what the Protein Data Bank is and what depositing a structure commits you to
- Read the key PDB record types: HEADER, ATOM, HETATM and the metadata fields
- Extract chains, resolution, method, organism and ligands from a file
- Explain what a B-factor measures and why resolution limits what you can claim
- Compare X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM and NMR by what each one can and cannot resolve

## Links

- [Module 4: The Bioinformatician's Toolkit](https://proteindesign.academy/module/4)
- [4.2 Navigating a 3D Molecular Viewer](https://proteindesign.academy/module/4/2)
- [4.3 Sequence Alignments and BLAST](https://proteindesign.academy/module/4/3)
- [4.4 Evolutionary Conservation and ConSurf](https://proteindesign.academy/module/4/4)
- [4.5 Structure Prediction Landscape](https://proteindesign.academy/module/4/5)
- [The Structural Biologist](https://proteindesign.academy/module/4/capstone)