May 1, 2006 (Vol. 26, No. 9)
URL:
http://bioweb.ucr.edu/ChemMine/search.php?opt=2
Rating:
Strong Points: Massive database
Weak Points: Few descriptions of content
Summary:
You’ve got to admire the aspirations of this interesting site—to facilitate chemical genomics screens and disseminate the generated knowledge. Hosted at the Center for Plant Cell Biology at the University of California, Riverside, the focus would seem to be on plants but it really isn’t. The size of the database is impressive—over 2,000,000 compounds at press time. Users can search the ChemMine database and upload compounds, as well. Online analysis tools provide functions for structure-based clustering of compounds and numerous viewing and formatting functions. The entire project is open source, so as to provide maximum access to information. There’s a lot to like here, but like other database-focused sites, a bit of background would be helpful.
