ChEBI

ChEBI (Chemical Entities of Biological Interest) is a freely available database of 'small molecular entities'. The term 'molecular entity' refers to any constitutionally or isotopically distinct atom, molecule, ion, ion pair, radical, radical ion, complex, conformer, etc., identifiable as a separately distinguishable entity. ChEBI encompasses an ontological classification, whereby the relationships between molecular entities or classes of entities and their parents and/or children are specified. ChEBI uses nomenclature, symbolism and terminology endorsed by the following international scientific bodies: International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NC-IUBMB).

Overview

ChEBI is part of the EMBL-EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute) and is one of the core resources of the Bioinformatics infrastructure in Europe. ChEBI provides data about molecular entities focused on 'small' chemical compounds, and provides a resource to facilitate the understanding of how these entities contribute to the biological (and environmental) context.

Content

The database contains an immense amount of information about molecular entities, including their roles in biology and chemistry. The entities in ChEBI are either small molecules or they are groups or parts of a larger molecule. The larger molecules are divided into two main groups: proteins and nucleic acids. ChEBI includes a vast number of molecular entities of biological interest, including metabolites, drugs, and many more types of small molecules.

Access

ChEBI is accessible online through a web interface, or the data can be downloaded and used locally. It is also possible to access ChEBI programmatically via a Web service.

See also

• PubChem
• DrugBank
• KEGG

References

<references />

External links

• Official website

This article is a medical stub. You can help WikiMD by expanding it!
Most recent articles Ongoing trials	Wikipedia