diff --git a/setup_databases.sh b/setup_databases.sh
index 7c4e8256..64ae1449 100755
--- a/setup_databases.sh
+++ b/setup_databases.sh
@@ -6,9 +6,13 @@ WORKDIR="${1:-$(pwd)}"
 
 PDB_SERVER="${2:-"rsync.wwpdb.org::ftp"}"
 PDB_PORT="${3:-"33444"}"
+# do initial download of the PDB through aws?
+# still syncs latest structures through rsync
+PDB_AWS_DOWNLOAD="${4:-}"
+PDB_AWS_SNAPSHOT="20240101"
+
 UNIREF30DB="uniref30_2302"
 MMSEQS_NO_INDEX=${MMSEQS_NO_INDEX:-}
-
 cd "${WORKDIR}"
 
 hasCommand () {
@@ -23,6 +27,12 @@ if [ "$STRATEGY" = "" ]; then
 	    fail "No download tool found in PATH. Please install aria2c, curl or wget."
 fi
 
+if [ -n "${PDB_AWS_DOWNLOAD}" ]; then
+    if ! hasCommand aws; then
+        fail "aws command not found in PATH. Please install the aws command line tool."
+    fi
+fi
+
 downloadFile() {
     URL="$1"
     OUTPUT="$2"
@@ -95,6 +105,10 @@ fi
 if [ ! -f PDB_MMCIF_READY ]; then
   mkdir -p pdb/divided
   mkdir -p pdb/obsolete
+  if [ -n "${PDB_AWS_DOWNLOAD}" ]; then
+    aws s3 cp --no-sign-request --recursive s3://pdbsnapshots/${PDB_AWS_SNAPSHOT}/pub/pdb/data/structures/divided/mmCIF/ pdb/divided/
+    aws s3 cp --no-sign-request --recursive s3://pdbsnapshots/${PDB_AWS_SNAPSHOT}/pub/pdb/data/structures/obsolete/mmCIF/ pdb/obsolete/
+  fi
   rsync -rlpt -v -z --delete --port=${PDB_PORT} ${PDB_SERVER}/data/structures/divided/mmCIF/ pdb/divided
   rsync -rlpt -v -z --delete --port=${PDB_PORT} ${PDB_SERVER}/data/structures/obsolete/mmCIF/ pdb/obsolete
   touch PDB_MMCIF_READY