A fast, efficient way to determine the structure of proteins, shortening a process that often takes years into a matter of days, has been developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists.

They used a “small angle x-ray scattering” (SAXS) technique, which can image a protein in its natural state, such as in a solution, and at a spatial resolution of about 10 angstroms, which is small enough to determine a protein’s three-dimensional shape; a robotic positioning system; and a supercomputer.

The high-throughput protein pipeline could allow scientists to expedite the development of biofuels and help scientists keep pace with the growing flood of data stemming from genomic studies of organisms and environmental samples.