Elsevier MDL and NIH link PubChem database and DiscoveryGate® information platform
San Leandro, CA - March 21, 2006 - Elsevier MDL and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have linked databases to make it easier and quicker for academic, government, pharmaceutical and other researchers to obtain more comprehensive information, improve decision making and support discovery breakthroughs. The NIH’s freely available PubChem database of small molecule data, designed to support links to outside chemical information resources, is now cross-indexed with the Compound Index hosted on Elsevier MDL’s DiscoveryGate® platform.
“Now, researchers can immediately tell if information related to a specific chemical compound exists in the other system,” said Steve Bryant, director of the PubChem project. “From DiscoveryGate, links connect researchers directly to the relevant information from PubChem. Likewise, researchers using PubChem can link to additional information in DiscoveryGate [appropriate licenses required for accessing DiscoveryGate data sources]. This integrated information provision improves the scientific community’s ability to rapidly conduct thorough research.”
Lars Barfod, CEO of Elsevier MDL, added: “The value of DiscoveryGate is focused information, relevant to specific research questions, from a network of indexed and linked data sources. This collaboration with the NIH to index PubChem extends the scope of available content, and will help researchers find critical information while avoiding unnecessary, repetitious searches of multiple systems or data sources.”
The online DiscoveryGate® platform (www.discoverygate.com) provides access to integrated scientific content from databases, journal articles, patent publications and reference works, from information providers including Elsevier, Thomson-Derwent, FIZ CHEMIE, the U.S. FDA, Prous Science and Thieme. With the addition of 5 million chemical structures from the PubChem database, the MDL Compound Index (the master list of substances included in DiscoveryGate data sources) now exceeds 14 million unique chemical structures.
The PubChem database (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) emerged from the NIH effort to catalog information on the biological properties of small molecules. The new indexing in PubChem gives scientists with appropriate DiscoveryGate licenses the ability to move from biological data in PubChem to extensive bioactivity, chemical sourcing, chemistry, synthetic methodology and Environmental, Health and Safety data in DiscoveryGate data sources.
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About NIH
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—The Nation's Medical Research Agency—includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. The PubChem database, a component of NIH’s Molecular Libraries Roadmap Initiative, is a comprehensive database of chemical structures and their biological activities being developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a division of the National Library of Medicine at NIH. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
About Elsevier MDL
Elsevier MDL provides informatics, database and workflow solutions that accelerate successful life sciences R&D by improving the speed and quality of scientists’ decision making. Researchers around the world depend on Elsevier MDL for innovative and reliable discovery informatics software solutions and services augmented by 400 Elsevier chemistry and life sciences journals and related products. For more information, visit www.mdl.com. Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. For more information visit www.elsevier.com.
Elsevier is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world-leading publisher and information provider. Reed Elsevier's ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange). For more information visit www.reedelsevier.com.
MDL and DiscoveryGate are registered trademarks of MDL Information Systems, Inc. (‘Elsevier MDL’) in the United States. All rights reserved. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.
About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby’s Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai’s Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.
A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group plc, a world leading provider of professional information solutions. The group employs more than 30,000 people, including more than 15,000 in North America. Reed Elsevier Group plc is owned equally by two parent companies, Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. Their shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RUK and ENL.
Dr. Phil McHalee
Elsevier MDL
VP, Market and Corporate Communications
Phone: (925) 543-7800
EMail: h.bradley@mdl.com
