Editorial overview: New constructs and expression of proteins: Making things better.

The cornerstone of structural biology today is the ability to produce large quantitiesof any proteinor RNA that is subsequently purified and crystallised. However, what happens if things do not go to plan and the expression levels of the target are very low, even after trying all the usual tricks of altering growth and induction conditions? And what about the production of authentically folded and glycosylated proteins? Is it possible to improve the probability of getting crystals through judicious protein engineering? These are the topics of this volume, which follows the theme of ‘making things better’.