how does the creation of proteins help create antibodies to fight aids?

Question

Apparently there is a 2.2 million dollar machine purchased by The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego that quickly screens protein molecules.

As said here in an article "CrystalMation allows scientists to quickly crystallize proteins, an otherwise laborious but critical step in the search for new antibodies against HIV"

can someone explain how new proteins would protect or fight against hiv?

Answer 1

I assume you know that antibodies are proteins that recognize and bind to a specific target. What the crystallization and later x-ray crystallography will let the scientists do is 'see' the shape of a protein. Let's say they've created a possible antibody to AIDS and they want to see if it fits a site on the AIDS virus that they can model in the computer. Then, they use their machine to get crystals, get the shape of the proteins in the crystals using X-ray crystallography (not so easy, but getting more automated) and then have the computer try to dock the two structures together. You could just test chemically, but then you'd miss finding out that 'if we just moved that group sticking out right there, it would fit well' and insights like that really help in drug design.