Crystal structures of protein and nucleic acid molecules and their complexes are central to the practice of most parts of biophysics, and have shaped much of what we understand scientifically at the atomic-detail level of biology. Their importance is underlined by the United Nations declaring 2014 as the International Year of Crystallography, as the 100th anniversary of Max von Laue's 1914 Nobel prize for discovering the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. This chronological list of biophysically notable protein and nucleic acid structures is loosely based on a review in the Biophysical Journal. The list includes all the first dozen distinct structures, those that broke new ground in subject or method, and those that became model systems for work in future biophysical areas of research.
