ChEMBL

This morning, there was a press release released, marking the official release of chembl_02. More details are in the press release, but for the blog audience, the data is available in the interface, and the databases available for download on the ftp site. Work is already underway on chembl_03, with some associated minor changes to parts of the schema and additional curation of data. There is also something exciting and special in chembl_03, but more of that later.

There is approximately 20% more data in chembl_02 than chembl_01 and new content highlights include a significant expansion of Natural Product records, and unification of all compound identifiers across all EMBL-EBI records (we use ChEBI ids) all chembldb compounds should now seemlessly and quickly make their way into PubChem.

Many, many thanks to those who have told us of the errors and ambiguities you have found. We will incorporate all of these back into the database for the entire community.
For newer readers a pointer, and for older readers with poor memory, a reminder, of the chembl FAQ, and keep an eye open of the chembl-og (or even better the RSS feed) for schema walkthroughs, support and so forth.

Two pieces of staffing news for the group. Firstly, congratulations to Patricia for her success in getting selected for an EIPOD - this is for a joint collaborative project in peptide SAR between the Koehn and Overington groups. Secondly, we welcome our first PhD student - Felix Krueger, who is immersing himself in programming, databases, British life, and data.

Complementary to the required formality of the press release - some thanks! The entire Chembl team would like to take this opportunity to thank our many friends and colleagues who have helped to date, and will do so in the future. In particular, the Wellcome Trust (especially Alan and Rebecca) for their vision and funding (and Janet, Chris, Henning and Bissan for their essential roles in the grant), the senior management of EMBL, especially Iain and Janet, for their wisdom and continuous support. We'd like to acknowledge the assistance our growing network of external curators (Malcolm, Sam, Lora, and Karen), previous interns (good luck Jigisha!), and outsourcing partners (especially Jignesh and the team). Bissan and Mark at the ICR were essential in the early days of the group, and achieved so much while we were recruiting, and they remain an important part of our work and plans. We also thank and recognise the management and staff of Inpharmatica and their investors, for much of the initial development of the databases was done at that time - you know who you are!. Prof. Hopkins, as ever, you are a star ;) Most essential though has been the friendship, focus and shared purpose of our new colleagues at the EMBL-EBI - especially our new friends in the ChEBI team, as well as the INTACT, Systems, Outreach, PANDA, HSF, EBI Industry programme partners, and many other new friends and colleagues, both at Hinxton and Heidelberg. Finally, finally; we have also been doubly blessed with 1) being able to continue working with several long-term collaborators, and 2) finding new important ones since starting at the EMBL-EBI. The future looks bright, so thank you all!