May 1, 2011 (Vol. 31, No. 9)
URL:
http://www.massbank.jp/index.html?lang=en
Rating:
Strong Points: Great site design, many search features
Weak Points: Nothing major
Summary:
When you’re a bank whose currency is the charge-to-mass ratio, you certainly don’t need to trouble yourself with the ongoing economic crisis! Such is the situation for MassBank, a high-resolution mass spectral database (and the official mass spectral database of The Mass Spectrometry Society of Japan, no less!). The website is beautifully designed, and the database can be searched a variety of ways: one can search similar spectra on a peak-to-peak basis, search by chemical compound name or molecular formula, search spectra by the molecular formula and the m/z value, search chemical compounds by substructures, or search similar spectra that are similar to the user’s spectrum based on molecular formula. Additionally, there is a neat 3-D viewer to directly compare spectra. So don’t just take my word for it—listen to people of the Mass Spectrometry Society of Japan and go check out this site.
