I've been researching protein structure related problems as a student and from the perspective of a computer scientist. My focus has been on addressing specific problems. I understand I'm working in a vacuum with respect to industry and despite reading the introduction to research papers with the standard boilerplate text regarding the usefulness of protein structure searches, I'm not confidant in my understanding of the applications of protein structure searches in an actual industry environment.

So I would like to know in what ways these tools are often used in the industry by practitioners during their day to day workflow. Some use-cases would be appreciated. It would also be helpful to hear whether or not they are useful at all from those most likely to use them.