Global Phasing Ltd

Info

Global Phasing Ltd is a private crystallography software company based in Cambridge, UK. Founded by Gerard Bricogne (former MRC-LMB). ~8 person team. Develops BUSTER (refinement), autoPROC (data processing), SHARP (phasing), and GRADE (ligand restraints). Funded by a consortium of ~15 pharmaceutical/biotech companies. Free for academic use (registration required).

Commercial consortium model

Unlike CCP4 (publicly funded) or PHENIX (NIH funded), Global Phasing operates on a private consortium model where pharma companies fund development in exchange for early access. This is a distinct governance pattern in the landscape.

People

Name	Role	Affiliation
Gerard Bricogne	Founder / Director	Global Phasing Ltd, Cambridge
Clemens Vonrhein	Lead developer (autoPROC)	Global Phasing Ltd
Oliver Smart	Developer (BUSTER)	Global Phasing Ltd
Andrew Sherff	Developer	Global Phasing Ltd

Funding

• Pharma/biotech consortium memberships (Astex, Genentech, and others)
• Academic use is free with registration

Key Relationships

• Competes with PHENIX and CCP4 for refinement (BUSTER vs. phenix.refine vs. REFMAC5)
• autoPROC competes with XDS, DIALS for data processing
• Ian Tickle (Global Phasing) also appears on X-Ray Validation Task Force
• STARANISO online service widely used for anisotropic data analysis

Key Reference

Vonrhein et al., Acta Cryst D80, 117-129 (2024) Bricogne et al., BUSTER version 2.10.4 (2023)