ChEMBLdb, an online database of information on the properties and activities of drugs and drug-like small molecules and their targets, has been launched. The database, which contains information on over half a million compounds, is hosted by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory's European Bioinformatics Institute. It was transferred from biotech firm Galapagos NV in July 2008 through a £4.7 million Strategic Award from the Wellcome Trust.
ChEMBLdb is positioned as a unique resource because of its focus on drug discovery and its size. Information on an additional 100,000 compounds has been added to the database for its launch, taking the number of small molecules to over 520,000. It now contains over 2.4 million records of their effects on biological systems. The data include information about how small molecules bind to their targets, how these compounds affect cells and whole organisms, and information on the molecules' absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion and toxicity.
The human genome sequence provided a molecular 'parts list' for a human being, comprising all the genes and proteins that are encoded by our genetic blueprint. In order to develop new medicines, it is important to catalogue how each of these 'parts' interacts with drugs and drug-like molecules. ChEMBLdb seeks to bring together information from the interface of the genome with chemistry into a set of 'chemogenomic' databases. These databases can be used to help determine whether a particular molecule has the right properties to make an effective drug.
The launch of ChEMBLdb is accompanied by the release of Kinase SARfari, an integrated resource of sequence, compound and screening data from a variety of sources for the protein kinases, a key family for drug discovery.
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