The bacterial ribosome, a promising focus for structure-based drug design

Recent crystal structures of the bacterial ribosome have identified the complex molecular interactions involved in antibiotic-ribosome recognition. Insights into the binding of aminoglycosides, macrolides, tetracyclines and other antibiotics provide opportunities for computational, structure-based approaches to be used in the design of appropriate modifications to existing antibiotics as well as in the discovery of completely new drug classes.