BindingDB and ChEMBL: online compound databases for drug discovery

Public domain repositories of compound structures and activity data are indispensable tools for many aspects of pharmaceutical research, especially in academic environments. Such databases provide essential resources for structure-activity data mining and the evaluation of chemoinformatics and drug design methods. They are also important to support scientific interactions between commercial and academic environments. This editorial highlights two major public domain compound data repositories, BindingDB and ChEMBL, which have different origins. BindingDB has evolved in an academic setting (and continues to be developed there) and ChEMBL in a biotechnology environment. The ChEMBL database is now maintained and further developed at the European Bioinformatics Institute Outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. These databases mostly contain structures and activity data taken from the scientific literature, covering different stages of compound exploration and optimization efforts, and provide a substantial body of complementary compound activity information. Together with PubChem bioassays, ChEMBL and BindingDB provide the foundation of compound data analysis in the public domain.