CINF E-News

Volume 6 Number 2
Spring 2005

Edited by Bruce Slutsky

Table of Contents

 

 

 

Editor’s Note

By Bruce Slutsky

The CINF E-news, published about 6 weeks after the ACS National Meeting, helps members keep in touch with divisional activities whether or not they are able to attend.  I would like to thank all who sent contributions to the Spring 2005 edition.  I would also like to thank my fellow member of the Publications Committee (Norman Santora, Cathy Misner, Graham Douglas, and Helen Yun) who produced the Chemical Information Bulletin (CIB) that is issued before each meeting.  Kudos to Webmaster Kerryn Brandt who authored and maintains the CINF Website (http://www.acscinf.org) .  I hope to see many readers of the CINF E-News at the Washington, D.C. meeting in August.

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CINF Sponsors in 2005
Submitted by Guenter Grethe
Fundraising Chair

The Division of Chemical Information again was fortunate to receive generous financial support from our sponsors to maintain the high quality of the Division’s programming at the 2005 National ACS Meeting in San Diego, to promote communication between members at social functions and to support other divisional activities during the year, including scholarships to graduate students in Chemical Information.   

The Division gratefully acknowledges contribution from the following sponsors:

Platinum Level

                                    Chemical Abstracts Service

                                    Elsevier MDL

                                   

Silver Level

                                    Chemical Diversity

FIZ CHEMIE Berlin

Wiley Interscience

                                    Springer Science + Business Media

Bronze Level

                                    Rusch Consulting Group

                                    Accelyrs

Sunset Molecular Discovery

Contributor Level           

Inpharmatica

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Reports from the San Diego Meeting

 Minutes of the Executive Committee Meeting

 
Submitted by Svetlana Korolev
 
The draft minutes from the Executive Committee Meeting held March 12, 2005 in San Diego is posted at the Publications page of the CINF
 web site.
 
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Technical Sessions

Abstracts of the technical sessions from the Philadelphia meeting may be found at http://www.acscinf.org/cinf/meetings/229nm/229cinfabstracts.htm There are links to many of the Powerpoint files that were shown. 

Presentations given at CINF symposia have been posted to the CINF website with express permission granted by the authors who retain the original copyright.  These presentations  are for information purposes only and cannot be further disseminated without the author's prior  written permission.

The Editor thanks the speakers at the San Diego meeting who sent me their Powerpoint files to share their information with CINF members who could not attend.

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Awards
Submitted by Bill Town

 

2006 Herman Skolnik Award - call for nominations

 

The ACS Division of Chemical Information established this Award to recognize outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science. The Award is named in honor of the first recipient, Herman Skolnik.

By this Award, the Division of Chemical Information is committed to encouraging the continuing preparation, dissemination and advancement of chemical information science and related disciplines through individual and team efforts. Examples of such advancement include, but are not limited to, the following:

The Award consists of a $3000 honorarium and a plaque. The recipient is expected to give an address at the time of the Award presentation. In recent years, the Award Symposium has been organized by the recipient.

Nominations for the Herman Skolnik Award should describe the nominee's contributions to the field of chemical information and should include supportive materials such as a biographical sketch and a list of publications and presentations. Three seconding letters are also required. Nominations and supporting material should be sent by email to me (bill.town@kilmorie.com). Paper submissions are no longer acceptable.The deadline for nominations for the 2006 Herman Skolnik Award is June 1, 2005.


As reported in Volume 6 Number 1 of the CINF E-News Lorrin Garson won the award for 2005. Lorrin will organize a symposium at the Fall 2005 ACS National Meeting.

Lucille M. Wert Scholarship 2005


This year the scholarship, which is designed to help persons with an interest in the field of Chemical Information to pursue graduate study in Library, Information or Computer Science, will be presented to Jeffery Loo who has a BSc, Chemistry, Simon Fraser University, 2001 and MLIS, Library and Information Studies, University of British Columbia, 2003. Currently, he is at the Welch Medical Library of the Johns Hopkins University, where he is completing the second year of his National Library of Medicine/NIH Associate Fellowship. In fall 2005, he will begin studying for a MSc in Chemoinformatics at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Jeffrey Loo
Jeffrey Loo

 

Meritorious Service Award 2005


The CINF Executive committee, at its Spring meeting, has voted unanimously to recognize an outstanding member of the division, Marge Matthews, with the 2005 Meritorious Service Award

Extracts from the nomination letters for the Meritorious Service Award explain why she has been nominated to receive this award:

'Her service to the division has spanned all of the nominator's years with the division (1980's onward).  In her capacity as the Bulletin editor, newsletter editor, and in the role of treasurer, her efficient "get the job done" attitude has provided a base of consistency and confidence for many of the Division officers who have served with Marge.  She has helped many a chair-elect through the budget preparation process and has worked to make our division a successful one.'

'Marge has been a diligent volunteer for CINF since the 1970's when she worked on the then very labor-intensive Chemical Information Bulletin and ultimately took over as editor - a role she filled for many years.  She has worked on a variety of CINF committees, and most recently has served as CINF Treasurer for more years than I can remember.'
 
'During her tenure as Treasurer Marge was exemplary in her fulfillment of her fiduciary responsibilities.  She maintained accurate and complete records, insured that CINF funds received the maximum interest possible, entered CINF into the ACS investment pool for Divisions, worked tirelessly to resolve the many problems created by ACS systems in generating bills, reimbursement checks, etc., and served as a voice of reason at every CINF Executive Committee meeting to ensure that CINF functionaries created a reasonable and balanced budget.  Most recently Marge established a CINF Finance committee to oversee the Division's funds and to ensure continuity in the financial knowledge and experience required by the CINF Treasurer and Division Chair.'

'Marge has been responsible, continuing to attend CINF meetings at her own expense for many years after her employer no longer subsidized such volunteer activities.  And she continues to serve, most having recently agreed to actively participate on the CINF Awards committee.' 

'Marge did an amazing job as CINF's Treasurer which she held for a decade (1995-2004).  Her knowledge, pragmatism, dedication, and long-term efforts have been a tremendous service to CINF.  She did far more than make sure that the accounts for the Division were in order.  She carefully monitored and analyzed income and expenses, keeping the CINF Executive Committee fully informed of the status of the budget and CINF Officers to potential problems or issues.  Her leadership has played a seminal role in keeping the Division's financial health strong.  If there was bad news, she always had the courage to deliver it.  She always offered sound options, suggestions, and alternatives.  In short, Marge was an excellent Treasurer for the Division and we were very fortunate to have her excellent contributions for such a long time.  She is someone who is most deserving of CINF's Meritorious Service Award.'

2005 Marion E. Sparks Award

Submitted by Svetlana Korelev


The 2005 Marion E. Sparks Award will be given to Hilary Davis. A recent graduate, Hilary is a Fellow at the North Carolina State University Libraries since January 2005. She holds a Master of Library Science, University of Missouri - Columbia 2004, and a Master of Science in Biology, University of Missouri - St. Louis 2001.

Hilary Davis has been selected to receive the award from amongst a large group of strong candidates. A honorary certificate and a check for $1500 will be presented to her at the SLA Chemistry Division Annual Business Meeting on Tuesday, June 7, 2005, 7:30-9:00 AM, Toronto Convention Center.

The Marion E. Sparks Award for Professional Development, established in 2002 by the Chemistry Division of the Special Libraries Association, is designed to recognize the ambitious individuals and assist them with their career growth.

The award is named to honor Marion E. Sparks, http://www.sla.org/division/dche/sparks.htm, a chemistry librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign from 1913 until her death in 1929. Ms. Sparks contributed a great deal to the field of chemical information, her achievements include teaching courses on chemical information, and authoring and publishing what is argued to be the first book to formally address chemical literature and library instruction.

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Photos from the San Diego Meeting
Submitted by Wendy Warr and Eric Shively

                 San Diego Meeting

                     

From left, Josef Eiblmaier, InfoChem, Roger Schenk of CAS, Valentina Eigner-Pitto, InfoChem, Peter Loew of InfoChem 


W. Todd Wipke
W. Todd Wipke and his wife Corrinne


CAS Lunch
At the Chemical Abstracts Service Luncheon



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CINF Scholarship for Scientific Excellence Sponsored by IO Informatics

The scholarship program of the Division of Chemical Information (CINF) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) funded by IO Informatics is designed to reward graduate students in chemical information and related sciences for scientific excellence and to foster their involvement in CINF.  For further information please see:

http://www.acscinf.org/cinf/awards/IO-CINF.htm

 

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Highlights from the ACS Council Meeting
Submitted by Bonnie Lawlor and JoAnne Witiak


The Council of the American Chemical Society met on Wednesday, March 16, 2005 in the Marina Ballroom of the San Diego Marriott Hotel in San Diego, CA. The meeting was opened at 8:00am with a resolution and moment of silence honoring recently deceased ACS Councilors, including past-Presidents Clayton Callis and Warren Niederhauser.


SAN DIEGO REGISTRATION

Total registration at the Dan Diego meeting was 15,385.  This included 8,372 Full members, 4,160 student affiliates, 1,624 exhibitors (representing 328 companies), 628 exhibit-only visitors, and 601 guests.  This conference had the second highest number of exhibitors in ACS meeting history.

ELECTION ISSUES

Candidates for Fall ACS Elections

Council elected Catherine T. Hunt (Rohm and Haas Company, Spring House, PA, Philadelphia Section) and John W. Kozarich (ActivX Biosciences, La Jolla, CA San Diego Section) as the two candidates for ACS President-Elect 2006.  It was announced that George Heinz has been certified to run for President-Elect as a petition candidate. The ballots will be mailed to all voting-eligible ACS members in the Fall.

The Committee on Nominations and Elections reported that the Council selected Catherine C. Fenselau and Madeleine M. Joullié as the District III candidates for the ACS Board of Directors.  Bonnie A. Charpentier and Stanley H. Pine were elected as District VI candidates..  In addition, James D. Burke, Edwin A. Chandross, C. Gordon McCarty, and Frankie Wood-Black have been selected to run for Director-at-Large (2006 - 2008).  Ballots for all of these elections will be mailed on or before October 10, 2005 to the appropriate segments of the Council.

Electronic Ballot on the Horizon

In August 2004 the ACS Council approved a petition to allow electronic balloting in ACS elections.  The Council Policy Committee has since approved the revised Bylaws and, if all of the technical requirements can be put in place within the next few months, the elections scheduled for October 2005 (see above) will have an electronic option for those who prefer to vote in this manner.

Petition Candidates

Ron Breslow, former ACS President, expressed some dissatisfaction with how the current ACS Bylaws handle the process for petition candidates.  He believes that petition candidates should have to stand in front of Council along with the nominees selected by the Committee on Nominations and present to Council to take their chances on being one of the final two candidates.  At present, ACS alternates the formal selection of nominees for the Presidency  - one year they are from industry and the following year they are from academia.  However, in any given year petition candidates can come from either sector.  Dr. Breslow suggested that petition candidates should not even be permitted or perhaps they should be required to wait until the appropriate sector election.  He believes that the freedom for a petition candidate to run out of their sector can put nominated candidates at a disadvantage.

Dennis Chamot stated that petition candidates allow the membership to have a say in who runs for office - exclusive of Council.  But he offered the possibility of having petition candidates address Council in the Fall - not for selection purposes, but in order to have them fully participate in the process.

Valerie Kuck, Chair of the Committee on Nominations and Elections, asked all Councilors to supply their input on this issue as it is one that N&E is attempting to address in the near future.


Nomination & Election Procedures Discussion

The Committee on Nominations & Elections will hold an open forum at the 2005 Fall National meeting in Washington, DC for the discussion of the current procedures that are followed for nomination and election to ACS offices.  The committee plans to do another member survey prior to the forum to determine members' understanding of and level of satisfaction with the current process. An earlier survey was done two years ago.

2004 YEAR-END POSITIVE FINANCIAL RESULTS

The Society ended 2004 on a positive financial note as follows:

* Net from Operations     $  5.1 Million
* Investment Gains        $14.1 Million
* Unrestricted Net Assets    $24.0 Million added (total: $185 Million)

In addition, all pre-established financial guidelines were met with full compliance.  While unrestricted net assets still remain under the $207 Million reached in the year 2000, there has been a steady increase since the low of $135 Million was hit in 2002.

2006 DUES INCREASE APPROVED

The Committee on Budget & Finance recommended that the 2006 ACS dues be set at the fully escalated level allowed by the Bylaws (dues are based upon a formula in the bylaws that takes the current rate and multiples it by a Consumer Price Index).  Using that calculation, the new dues will be $127 ($123 x 1.0294 = $126.62 (rounded up to $127/year).  Council voted to accept the recommendation.

CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS SERVICE CONTINUES GROWTH

CAS had both record revenues and record net contribution to the Society in 2004.  Their revenue growth was 8% - the second highest growth rate for CAS in the past 16 years.   Approximately 850,000 abstracts and indexed records were added to the CAPlus database - the highest number in CAS history!  In addition, a record 1.4 million substances were added to the CAS registry, with 55% of these being from the patent literature.  By year-end, SciFinder Scholar had a total installation base of 934 institutions worldwide making it the most widespread scientific research tool in colleges and universities where chemistry is taught and researched.  It is more prevalent than Thomson Scientific's Web of Science and Elseviers' Beilstein Crossfire.

CAS plans to launch a new and innovative service within the next few months.

ACS PUBLICATIONS ARE HIGHLY CITED, BUT REVENUE GROWTH IS SLOW

The ACS Governing Board for Publishing reported that the articles most requested from chemistry journals by researchers worldwide are published in ACS publications.  In addition, The Journal of the American Chemical Society retains its dominance as the most-cited chemistry journal.

However, revenue in the publications group is also dependent upon advertising, and ad sales have been poor.  While the Publications Division achieved budget in 2004 for its overall net contribution, it fell short of its revenue growth target because of weak advertising performance.  Centcom, ACS' advertising subsidiary, has been experiencing financial difficulties in recent years due to the decline in advertising sales.  As a result, Centcom has been dissolved as a separate corporation and certain functions have been re-assigned to staff in Washington, DC.  The sales operation will be a department within the Publications Division.  Also looming on the horizon is the long-term impact of the Open Access Publishing movement, including NIH's recent proposal requesting that scientists who receive NIH funding deposit the articles resulting from NIH-funded research in PubMed Central.  The Governing Board believes that this proposal could pose a serious threat to publishing in general, including the ACS journals program.



MEMBERSHIP GROWTH

The Committee on Membership Activities (MAC) reported that there was a slight decline (less than one percent) in membership as of December 31, 2004.  Membership totaled 158,127 (the total was 159,332 as of December 31, 2003 - and this represented a one percent decline from 2002).  However, more than 13,000 new members were added in 2004.  The committee is looking at the possibility of simplifying membership requirements and the related dues structure, considering membership not only for those having degrees in chemistry, but also for those having degrees in "related sciences" in order for membership to be in alignment with the interdisciplinary nature of chemistry. 

DIVISIONS & LOCAL SECTONS MARK KEY MILESTONES

The Committee on Divisional Activities reported that two Divisions will be celebrating their 25th Anniversary in 2005:  Chemistry and the Law and Small Chemical Businesses.
The Committee on Local Section Activities noted similar anniversaries:  50th anniversary for North Central Oklahoma and Western Michigan; 75th Anniversary for Dayton, Eastern Tennessee, Northeast Wisconsin and MO-KAN-OK ; and the 100th anniversary for Iowa and Western New York.

DIVISION ISSUES

The Committee on Divisional Activities (DAC) reported that 30 of the 33 Divisions and 2 of the 4 Secretariats submitted their 2004 annual reports on time - even with the earlier submission date.  They also reported on the development of a new programming model that will promote the interdisciplinary nature of chemistry, that will remove the logistical barriers to programming, and that will provide incentives for collaborative efforts.  DAC also plans to work towards having the term "emeritus" status uniformly defined in Division Bylaws to match the definition in the ACS Bylaws.

SPECIAL DISCUSSION ITEM

A special discussion item was put on the Council agenda for this meeting.  ACS President William F. Carroll presented an overview of Chemistry Enterprise 2015, posing the question, "Where will our students come from in the next ten years, and where will they go?"  Councilors then participated in a lively discussion of this issue.   The issue was framed as follows: Currently the U.S. has a strong university system and U.S. graduate education in science is widely recognized as the best in the world, but problems loom on the horizon.  In addition, a variety of factors in the nation's academic infrastructure are likely to produce change in the training and careers of new chemists.  The discussion at Council intensified awareness of this issue and possibilities for solutions.
The Situation Analysis paper  (124KB) that served as the foundation for the discussion is based on interviews conducted in the fall 0f 2004 with thirty senior researchers, teachers, business executives, government scientists and policy makers. These interviews have been summarized and collected into a rough consensus based on the input from this Senior Advisory Group. The views expressed by these enterprise leaders have been harmonized but not homogenized; they have tried to preserve the tone of the individual voices so the paper is not as smooth as if it were the ideas of a single author.  You can access the paper at:

http://www.chemistry.org/portal/resources/ACS/ACSContent/industry/chementerprise2015/situation_analysis.pdf

JOB INTERVIEWS HELD IN SAN DIEGO

Following on the discussion of the future of the chemical enterprise, it was noted that 1,344 job seekers were given a total of 1,410 interviews for only 189 open positions at the Chemjobs Career Center during the Spring National Meeting in San Diego.

PROJECT SEED TO CONTINUE

Council approved the commendation made by the Committee on Committees (ConC) to continue Project Seed.  This national program, managed by the ACS' Education Division, places economically disadvantaged high-school students in academic, industrial, and government research laboratories for eight to ten weeks during the summer. Each student participates in a chemical research project under the direct supervision of a scientist/mentor and, in so doing, learns what it is like to work as part of a team engaged in hands-on research.  Each student receives an educational stipend and may also apply for a second summer.
Typically, around 65% of the students are from minority groups, and 62% are female.
An extensive effort to determine SEED's long-term impact began in 1995, with the ACS locating and surveying former SEED students. Results include the following:
* Some 80% of these students had completed a degree of some kind, ranging from associate degrees to professional degrees.
* Project SEED had been a pivotal experience for these students-- an experience that made a difference, not necessarily in test scores but in opportunity, not necessarily in job salary but in job satisfaction.
* Even former participants who are now approaching the age of 50 said that Project SEED had given them a tremendous boost in confidence.
For more information on Project Seed, go to: http://www.nas.edu/rise/examp10.htm.

NEW COMMITTEE PROPOSED

The Committee on Committees presented to Council a proposal for establishing a Committee on Ethics as an Other Committee of the Council.  The charge of this committee would be as follows: To coordinate the ethics-related activities of the Society, serve as an educational resource and clearinghouse, but not as an adjudication body, for ACS members seeking guidance on ethics issues; raise awareness of ethics issues through meeting programming and columns/editorials; review recognition opportunities for acknowledging ethical behavior; and to develop and oversee such other ethics-related activities as will serve ACS members and promote the Society's standards of ethical conduct within the profession of chemistry and its related disciplines.    After defeating a motion to assign the proposed duties of the committee to the Committee on Economic and Professional Affairs, the Council voted to establish a Committee on Ethics as an Other Committee of the Council.

ACTIONS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Special Temporary Assessment

In December 2002, the Board of Directors enacted a special temporary assessment to cover the costs of increased funding for divisions and local sections, as stipulated in the Petition for Division and Local Section Funding, which was subsequently approved by the ACS Council, Board, and membership in March 2003.  The Board accepted the temporary assessment with the understanding that it would be reviewed each year to determine whether it could be reduced.  The Board reviewed the temporary assessment for 2006 and, in light of the Society's strong financial performance, voted to reduce it to $5, rather than proceeding with the scheduled $6 assessment.

Current Finances and Financial Future

The Committee on Budget and Finance reported that the Society ended 2004 with a net contribution from operations of $5,099,000 on revenues of $419,200,000 and expenses of $414,700,000.  This was $3,628,000 favorable to the approved budget.  After including the results of the Belmont Conference Center, recorded as a discontinued operation, and the Member Insurance Program, the Society's overall net contribution for 2004 was $4,465,000, which was $3,229,000 favorable to the approved budget. 

The Board reviewed and voted to accept several recommendations from the recent Financial Planning Conference held January 2005.  The purpose of this conference was to provide a comprehensive assessment of the Society's financial position; to   review the appropriateness and adequacy of the Society's current financial guidelines; and to assess the Society's changing risk profile and the potential implications on major ACS funding sources over the next three years.

Board Committee's and Task Forces

The Board received a screened list of candidates from the Committee on Grants and Awards for the 2006 Priestley Medal and the Volunteer Service Award.  The Board will announce the two winners at its June meeting. 

The Board, through its Committee on Professional and Member Relations (P&MR), reviewed the approval process for recurring meeting co-sponsorship requests and voted to streamline and simplify the process.  The Board also voted to authorize P&MR to approve requests where ACS seeks the co-sponsorship of other organizations. 

The ACS/AIChE governance-to-governance task force and the ACS/AIChE Joint Membership task force have concluded formal discussions and have agreed on several points.  At this meeting, the Board voted to discharge both task forces with thanks.

Society's Staff

The Board received a report from the Executive Director/CEO and several of her direct reports on the status of the Society's website project, special issues associated with Chemical Abstracts Service and the Publications Divisions, the Green Chemistry Institute, and the activities of the General Counsel.  The Board also reviewed and approved several recommendations from the Committee on Executive Compensation relative to compensation for the Society's executive staff.  The compensation of the Society's executive staff receives regular review from the Board. 

Society's Publications

The Board voted to approve the appointment of an editor for a new Society journal, ACS Chemical Biology.  ACS Chemical Biology is scheduled to debut in 2006.

ACS Governance Review

The Board of Directors voted to support the creation of a Joint Board-Council Policy Committee Task Force on Governance Review with the charge to conduct a review of the Society's governance structure and Constitution and Bylaws to ensure that the Society has a governing framework to enable it to best fulfill its mission, meet member needs, and remain a world-class organization.

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Chemistry Site Seeing

Analytical Sciences Digital Library

Contributed by Connie Powell



ASDL, the Analytical Sciences Digital Library is a resource for educators and students in the analytical sciences.  ASDL  was founded under the guidelines of the National STEM Digital Library (NSDL),   a program funded through the National Science Foundation, Division of Undergraduate Education.  The NSDL supports significant advances in the quality of science, mathematics, engineering and technology education at all levels by providing access to rich collections of digital materials for teaching and learning.

The URL for ASDL is http://www.asdlib.org/  All ASDL resources are peer reviewed and include educational materials for teachers, teaching materials for the class or laboratory, information on analytical instruments and methods, information on real world applications, online articles, and even information on virtual laboratories. 

On March 11th and 12th in San Diego in conjunction with the Spring 2005 American Chemical Society Meeting, the director of ASDL, Dr. Cindy Larive organized and directed an ASDL Conference.  Participants included professors and researchers in various fields of chemistry and biology, computer programmers, and librarians.  The sessions consisted of lectures and brainstorming sessions with the purpose of finding ways to make both the ASDL content and the webpage more useful. It was an exciting time as we participated in making open access a reality.

Platinum Group Metals Database
Contributed by Keith White


The most comprehensive collection of physical, mechanical and chemical data for the platinum group metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium) and their alloys is now live at: http://www.platinummetalsreview.com/jmpgm/index.jsp

The PGM Database contains information on more than 400 alloys and is illustrated with over 1000 diagrams and graphs with over 9000 referenced numerical data points. The data include about 60 phase diagrams of platinum group metals alloy systems and more than 600 separate pages of related data. The PGM Database is published as a fully searchable Web-based resource.

State-of-the-art software allows users to identify materials that meet specified physical, mechanical and chemical properties. Properties of materials are displayed in a user-friendly view, giving a comprehensive picture of a material and its capabilities.

The PGM Database, which is jointly sponsored by the International Platinum Association, Anglo Platinum and Johnson Matthey was originally compiled in the early 1990s at Johnson Matthey's Technology Centre at Sonning Common, U.K. It began as an in-house compilation of physical and mechanical property data of the platinum group metals and selected alloys, put together by a team of scientists: Duncan Coupland, Ian McGill and Richard Seymour, and led by John Notton. It was becoming increasingly difficult and time consuming to locate key data from the
large amount of such information available in the literature, scattered in technical papers, books and reports.

The Company, however, recognising the need to stimulate interest in the platinum group metals and their unique properties within the materials science community, decided to publish the PGM Database and grant free access to the global technical community. Thus, the database has been released with new software that allows users to identify materials that meet a combination of required properties.

The authors of the PGM Database acknowledge that it can never be complete, and a significant effort will be made to expand and update the PGM Database wherever possible. Indeed, as with any database, it will require constant revision as new data are continuously being published. However, the PGM Database has staff on hand with their own dedicated E-mail address: pgmdatabase@matthey.com to respond to new information. Users are invited to contribute new data for addition to the database to ensure that it develops into an authoritative and comprehensive data source on platinum group metals.

Resources about Earth Day and National Chemistry Week
Submitted by Grace Baysinger and Kitty Porter

See http://library.stanford.edu/depts/swain/hosted/ncw/2004/index.html for print books and online web sites in support of National Chemistry Week. Packets that included handouts of resources were distributed to 175 NCW Coordinators and 112 libraries.  From 1/104-12/31/04 ACS NCW and OCA (Office of Community Activities) websites received 121,408 views (number of times pages were viewed by visitors) and 94,971
visits (number of times visitors viewed the first page from the server only).

Grace and Kitty also compiled resources in support of Chemists Celebrate Earth Day. See: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/swain/hosted/earthday/2004/index.html

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Cheminformatics Ph D Track at Indiana University
Submitted by Gary Wiggins



The Indiana Commission for Higher Education has approved Indiana     University's request to begin offering the nation's first Ph.D. in     informatics in the fall of 2005. The program will initially have tracks     in bioinformatics, chemical informatics, health informatics,     human-computer interaction and social informatics.  Plans are underway     to add tracks in cybersecurity, new media, music informatics, complex    systems, modeling and networks. For more information about the    Informatics Ph.D. program, please see:     http://www.informatics.indiana.edu/academics/phd.asp.
    
Created in 1999, the IU School of Informatics is the nation's first such school. It has grown steadily, adding 21 new faculty members to its     Bloomington and Indianapolis rosters just last fall (2004).  At the Bloomington campus, it is planned to move the Department of Computer    Science to the School of Informatics next academic year, bringing the  total faculty at Bloomington to approximately 60.

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Future Meetings

 

7th International Conference on Chemical Structures
June 5-9, 2005 at Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands
Submitted by Bob Snyder and Markus Wagener


Registration:

Registration is now open and may be initiated online  at  http://www.int-conf-chem-structures.org/html/registration.html. 
 
Student Participation:

Students may take advantage of a discounted conference fee of 575 euro with early registration and sharing a hotel room.  In addition, limited student bursaries are available which can further reduce the conference fee.  For additional information see
http://www.int-conf-chem-structures.org/html/student_bursaries.html.
 
Keynote Address:

Dr. Johnny Gasteiger will receive the CSA Trust Michael Lynch Award and deliver the keynote address "Chemoinformatics - 30 Years at Noordwijkerhout"
 
Technical Program:

The main scientific program will be divided into five plenary sessions:
 
  Cheminformatics


  Structure-Activity and Structure-Property Prediction


  Structure-Based Drug Design and Virtual Screening


  Analysis of Large Data Sets


  Bridging the Cheminformatics-Bioinformatics Gap


Conference presentations will be published in a special issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (JCIM).
Posters can be submitted for any of the above and related areas, but we welcome contributions in any aspect of the computer handling of chemical structure information, such as:


Please refer to the conference web site at http:// www.int-conf-chem-structures.org/ for more information.
 

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American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST) Annual Meeting
October 28 - November 2, 2005
Charlotte, North Carolina
Submitted by Richard Hill

American Society for Information Science & Technology 2005 Annual Meeting October 28-November 2, 2005, Charlotte, North Carolina
ASIST 2005 will focus on the diversity of perspectives and insights from all those participating in the information science and technology community, as they generate innovative ideas, define theoretical concepts or work out the nuts and bolts of implementing well-tested ideas in new ways and in new settings.  A wide variety of plenary and invited speakers, moderated panels, poster sessions and refereed papers will explore this theme.

For further information, please contact:

Richard Hill, Executive Director (rhill@asis.org)
American Society for Information Science and Technology
1320 Fenwick Lane, Suite 510
Silver Spring, MD  20910
FAX: (301) 495-0810
(301) 495-0900
http://www.asist.org/

 

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Special Libraries Association
June 5-8, 2005
Annual Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

For further information please see: http://www.sla.org/content/Events/conference/ac2005/geninfo/index.cfm

For information on the SLA Chemistry Division Conference please see: http://www.sla.org/division/dche/2005/confschedule.htm

 

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Pacifichem
December 15-20, 2005
Honolulu, HI
Submitted by Bob Snyder

Symposium: Drug Discovery in a Systems Biology World: Integration of Biology and Chemistry Information
Pacifichem is an international conference of the Pacific Basin Societies held every five years in Honolulu, HI - with the next conference held December 15-20, 2005. The symposium is part of the Biological Chemistry section of the conference (#181). Pacifichem has a tradition of bringing outstanding presentations on the latest advancements in research and development. During the previous conference in 2000, over 6,000 reports were presented in 180 symposia in oral, general and poster sessions - and Pacifichem 2005 expects to be even bigger and better.

Focus of the Symposium: Advances in the "omics" sciences (genomics, proteomics,  metabolomics, toxicogenomics) have recently enabled the development of  better-focused and more rational approaches towards target identification, validation and prioritization. Such advances have also produced very large and complex datasets, which are growing at an exponential rate, reflecting the complexity of life and biological pathways. The integration of biology and chemistry has led to a new set of informatics challenges and knowledge management. The purpose of the symposium is to offer an occasion to present and discuss the latest developments in the area of systems biology and new ideas for linking biological and chemical information, combinatorial chemistry, interpreting biological networks, and clustering algorithms for data analysis and visualization.

Content of the Symposium: The symposium consists of three half-day sessions  (1 1/2 days in all) plus a poster session. Both invited and contributed papers will be part of the program. Major topics include the following: Genomics, Proteomics,
Small Molecule Lead Identification and Optimization, Metabolomics, and Toxicogenomics. An overriding theme of all sections is the integration of biological and chemical information as the drug discovery process moves from target identification to small molecule synthesis to safety and efficacy assessment to clinical studies.


About the Conference: The International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies, Pacifichem 2005, is established to disseminate recent research results in the chemical sciences among chemists of the Pacific Rim countries, thereby fostering industrial development, improving local and global environments and the material well-being of their peoples. The Congress is co-sponsored by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Korean Chemical Society (KCS), the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC), and the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI). Other Pacific Basin Societies have agreed to serve as Official Participating Organizations.

Registration opens on July 18, 2005 at the Pacifichem web site for those wishing to attend the symposium.
Submitted by: Bob Snyder (Pacifichem@comcast.net).  For further information, please see:  http://www.pacifichem.org/

 

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CSA Trust - grant applications invited for 2006
Submitted by Bonnie Lawlor

The Chemical Structure Association (CSA) Trust (http://www.csa-trust.org/) is an internationally recognized organization established to promote the critical importance of chemical information to advances in chemical research.  In support of its charter, the Trust has created a unique Grant Program, and is currently inviting the submission of grant applications for 2006.

Purpose of the Grants: 

The Grant Program has been created to provide funding for the career development of young researchers who have demonstrated excellence in their education, research or development activities that are related to the systems and methods used to store, process and retrieve information about chemical structures, reactions and compounds.  Grants will be awarded up to a maximum of one thousand U.S. dollars ($1,000) each.  Grants are awarded for specific purposes, and within one year each grantee is required to submit a brief written report detailing how the grant funds were allocated.

Who is Eligible?

Applicant(s), age 35 or younger, who have demonstrated excellence in their chemical information related research and who are developing careers that have the potential to have a positive impact on the utility of chemical information relevant to chemical structures, reactions and compounds, are invited to submit applications.  While the primary focus of the Grant Program is the career development of young researchers, additional bursaries may be made available at the discretion of the Trust.  All requests must follow the application procedures noted below and will be weighed against the same criteria.

What Activities are Eligible?

 Grants may be awarded to acquire the tools necessary to support research activities, or for travel to collaborate with research groups, to attend a conference relevant to one’s area of research, to gain access to special computational facilities, or to acquire unique research techniques in support of one’s research.

Application Requirements: 
Applications must include the following documentation:

1. A letter that details the work upon which the Grant application is to be evaluated as well as details on research recently completed by the applicant;
2. The amount of Grant funds being requested and the details regarding the purpose for which the Grant will be used (e.g. cost of equipment, travel expenses if the request is for financial support of meeting attendance, etc.). The relevance of the above-stated purpose to the Trust’s objectives and the clarity of this statement are essential in the evaluation of the application);
3. A brief biographical sketch, including a statement of academic qualifications; 
4. Two reference letters in support of the application.  Additional materials may be supplied at the discretion of the applicant only if relevant to the application and if such materials provide information not already included in items 1-4.   Three copies of the complete application document must be supplied for distribution to the Grants Committee.

Deadline for Applications: 
Applications must be received no later than October 21, 2005.  Successful applicants will be notified by December 16, 2005.

Address for Submission of Applications: 

Four copies of the application documentation should be forwarded to:  Bonnie Lawlor, CSA Trust Grant Committee Chair, 276 Upper Gulph Road, Radnor, PA 19087, USA.  E-mail submissions, if complete, may be forwarded to the Grant Committee at chescot@aol.com.

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Obituary - Jacques-Emile Dubois (1920-2005)
submitted by Bill Town



Born on 13 April 1920 in Lille, Dubois was only 20 years old when the Second World War started. He was evacuated to Grenoble, where he played an important role in the French resistance. From 1948 to 1950 he was a scientific assistant to the Cultural Counsellor at the French Embassy in London and was a research worker in Professor Ingold’s laboratory at University College London. In 1949, he became Professor and created the Chemistry Institute of Sarrebrück University. On his return to France, at the end of 1957, he became the first Chair of Organic Physical Chemistry which was created at the Faculty of Sciences of Paris. He was then founder and director of the Organic Physical Chemistry Laboratory which in 1977 became part of the Institute of Topology and Dynamic of Systems.
 
Jacques-Émile Dubois was one of the pioneers of chemical information systems, particularly in using mathematical methods for encoding organic substances. In 1965, he was the inventor of the DARC (Description, Acquisition, Restitution, and Conception) system, which allowed exploration of structure-property correlations. The system was also used for similarity searching in chemical structure databanks, for helping to develop new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry and for prediction of properties.  He extended the system to deal with Markush Structures found in patents (INPI-Questel Markush-DARC).
 
Jacques-Émile Dubois also played an important role in the creation of the University Paris 7. In parallel to his scientific activities, he held many important positions including: Directeur Adjoint de l'Enseignement Supérieur (1963-65), Directeur des Recherches et Moyens d’Essai (DRME) at the National Defence Ministry (1965-1977), President of the French Physical Chemistry Society (1974-1976), co-Director of the Biology Section of' the Curie Institute (1977-1980), Member of the Administrative Council and  Directorate of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) (1965-1977) and of the Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique d'Outre-Mer (Orstom) (1963-1975), Member of the Conseil Scientifique du Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique (CEA) (1971-1977), Vice-president of the Centre National de l'Information Chimique (1973-1990), Scientific Director of Compagnie Générale d'Électricité (CGE) (1979-1983), President of the Interdivisional Committee of IUPAC, (1969–1977), Vice-president of CODATA (1981-1988), President of CODATA-ICSU (1994 -1998).
 
He received many scientific honours including: Grand prix de l’invention technique de la ville de Paris for the development of the DARC system (1975), Grand prix d’animation graphique at the Festival  of Angers (1986), Doctor honoris causa, Regensburg University and the Herman Skolnik Award of the  American Chemical Society (1992).
 
Jacques-Émile Dubois was Commander of the Légion d'Honneur and of the Ordre National du Mérite; received the Resistance medal; was Commandeur des Palmes Académiques; and received various international honours.

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Sponsor Announcements

Chemical Abstracts Service
submitted by Eric Shively

SCIFINDER SCHOLAR™ NOW IN USE AT MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS WORLDWIDE



SAN DIEGO, CA, March 14, 2005 – SciFinder Scholar has enhanced its standing as one of the world’s most widely used research tools by exceeding an installed user base of one thousand colleges and universities internationally. The one thousand institution mark was surpassed as academic consortia in Brazil and mainland China signed agreements to adopt SciFinder Scholar to serve the research needs of member universities with a combined enrollment of more than a million students. CAS announced this achievement during the American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting in San Diego, California.

An agreement with the Brazilian academic consortium, CAPES, and a similar agreement with a group known as CALIS in China will provide over 100 universities with access to this CAS research tool.  Since the introduction of SciFinder Scholar in 1998 it has become the most widely adopted research tool of its kind, with installations at universities throughout North America, South America, Europe, India, Africa, China, Japan, and other parts of Asia.

“SciFinder Scholar has enjoyed widespread acceptance in academia in part because it has made the most comprehensive databases of scientific information so easily accessible,” said John F. Martin, CAS Academic and Government Markets Manager.  “But this service has also initiated innovative pricing programs that acknowledge the different needs of Ph.D., Bachelor’s, and Master’s degree programs. Content and ease-of-use have proved to be a winning combination for SciFinder Scholar and its users.”
     

Like the SciFinder® research tool for scientists in industry, SciFinder Scholar provides access to CAS databases containing bibliographic information for chemistry-related literature and patents back to the beginning of the 20th century, plus the world's largest chemical substance database, the CAS RegistrySM. SciFinder Scholar's intuitively easy user interface eliminates the need to train users in searching techniques, thus making the exploration of published information an everyday part of the research process.

CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, is an organization of scientists creating and delivering the most complete and effective digital information environment for scientific research and discovery. CAS provides pathways to published research in the world’s journal and patent literature—virtually everything relevant to chemistry plus a wealth of information in the life sciences and a wide range of other scientific disciplines—back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In addition to offering STN® in North America, CAS publishes the print version of Chemical Abstracts™ (CA), related publications and CD-ROM services; operates the CAS Chemical Registry; produces a family of online databases; and offers the SciFinder desktop research tool. The CAS web site is at http://www.cas.org/.

CAS SCIENCE SPOTLIGHT® RECOGNIZES MULTIDISCIPLINARY ARITICLE AS “MOST REQUESTED” FOR 2004


SAN DIEGO, CA, March 14, 2005 – A nanotechnology-related paper published in the journal Chirality in 2002 was the scientific article most requested by users of CAS electronic services during 2004, according to CAS’s Science Spotlight web service. Three co-authors of the paper--Prof. Stefan Matile, Dr. Naomi Sakai, both from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and Dr. Gopal Das, currently affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati--were honored by CAS at a special ceremony on March 14, during the American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Diego, California.

Identified as the most requested article was “Toward Catalytic Rigid-rod ß-barrels: a Hexamer with Multiple Histidines.”  Research described in the article focuses on the synthesis of a new rigid-rod ?-barrel for use in catalysis.  These barrels or nanotubes permit the storage and movement of chemical substances and have wide applicability in such diverse fields as catalysis, pharmacology, gene therapy, and materials science. 

The authors, editors, and publisher associated with the most requested article were recognized during the CAS Science Spotlight ceremony. Those honored along with the co-authors were Prof. John Caldwell and Prof. Nina D. Berova, editors of Chirality, the John Wiley & Sons journal that published the winning article. In addition, CAS Science Spotlight also honored Dr. Stephen Buchwald of MIT, as author of the greatest number of requested articles in 2004.

Since 2001, CAS has been counting Real-Time Document Requests (RDRs) to determine the journal articles that are most sought after by research scientists using the STN®, SciFinder®, and SciFinder Scholar™ information products.  A Real-Time Document Request™ is counted when a user of a CAS search service accesses the electronic full text of a document identified in a search.  Listings of the most requested documents appear in CAS Science Spotlight at http://www.cas.org/spotlight/.


“Scientists like to know what are the exciting areas of science,” said CAS Vice President, Editorial Operations, Dr. Matthew J. Toussant.  “Publications that are frequently requested using CAS electronic services are a very interesting measure of ‘the heat of excitement,’ the publications scientists must have to do their work.  CAS Science Spotlight lets them know the papers that are heating up.”

CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, is an organization of scientists creating and delivering the most complete and effective digital information environment for scientific research and discovery. CAS provides pathways to published research in the world’s journal and patent literature—virtually everything relevant to chemistry plus a wealth of information in the life sciences and a wide range of other scientific disciplines—back to the beginning of the twentieth century. In addition to offering STN® in North America, CAS publishes the print version of Chemical Abstracts™ (CA), related publications and CD-ROM services; operates the CAS Chemical Registry; produces a family of online databases; and offers the SciFinder desktop research tool. The CAS web site is at http://www.cas.org/.

Elsevier MDL
submitted by Erik Miller and Phil McHale

SAN LEANDRO, CA—March 29, 2005— In response to industry and customer demand, Elsevier MDL has launched a dedicated, phased program to build a robust, scalable, enterprise-strength electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) for the life sciences, built on MDL® Isentris® technology, for delivery in 2006.

“Elsevier MDL pioneered the first all-electronic laboratory notebook over a decade ago and is today a leader in the development and deployment of advanced ELN systems that combine the best features of paper notebooks with robust electronic data handling capabilities,” said Elsevier MDL CEO Lars Barfod. “A new generation ELN that satisfies both intellectual property and regulatory requirements is a unifying application that will significantly reduce cycle time in biopharmaceutical R&D.”

Biopharma researchers engaged in experiment planning and data capture/analysis supporting parallel synthesis, single- and multi-step reactions and other complex processes are increasingly demanding an electronic laboratory data capture, report generation, auditing, tracking and storage solution that supports FDA- and OSHA-mandated Good Manufacturing and Good Laboratory Practices, as well as 21 CFR Part 11 compliance. An integrated ELN system offers many productivity benefits: streamlining workflows, automating repetitive tasks, documenting discovery history for patent disclosure and defense and leveraging past work. In addition, an integrated ELN ensures that information captured in the system can benefit everyone in an R&D organization.

The open, scalable, extensible and proven MDL Isentris discovery informatics platform offers the technology framework for building and delivering a variety of ELNs. The first ELN release will  address the needs of discovery scientists, particularly in organic synthetic chemistry, with a scope encompassing authentication, sign/witness, audit, notebook record repository and reporting services with extensive workflow customization capabilities. The first release will integrate with MDL structure and reaction registration services, with the MDL® Discovery Logistics materials management solution, and with both Elsevier MDL and proprietary customer content. The first ELN will also support collaborative searching of hosted content via the DiscoveryGate® platform for scientific research. Subsequent ELN releases will provide additional functionality supporting development chemistry and biology workflows.

Elsevier MDL offers extensive experience in developing and delivering ELN consulting applications, deep domain knowledge in chemistry and biology workflows, a large existing biopharmaceutical customer base and a corporate commitment to the pharmaceutical and wider scientific marketplaces. For all of these reasons, Elsevier MDL is positioned to exert a significant presence in the rapidly emerging ELN market.

With the release of the new ELN, current Elsevier MDL customers using the existing MDL® Élan application will have the option to implement a modern, new-generation ELN solution.     

Elsevier MDL is interested in working with customers to identify specific requirements for the new-generation ELN. Research organizations with an interest in defining and validating these requirements should contact an Elsevier MDL Account Manager.

About Elsevier MDL
Elsevier MDL provides informatics, database and workflow solutions that accelerate the discovery and development of successful new drugs by improving the speed and quality of scientists’ decision making. Commercial, academic and government life sciences 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 http://www.mdl.com/.


Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, the company publishes more than 1,800 journals and 2,200 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products and online reference works. 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 http://www.reedelsevier.com/.

CONTACT:
Dr. Phil McHale
Elsevier MDL
VP, Corporate Communications & Scientific Affairs
Phone: (510) 357-2222 ext. 3541
p.mchale@mdl.com



MDL® Isentris® discovery informatics platform now available
—Release of MDL® Base desktop component completes new, n-tier architecture supporting top-to-bottom data integration and application interoperability—

SAN LEANDRO, CA – December 8, 2004 – Elsevier MDL is pleased to announce the release and shipment of the full Isentris suite of products. MDL Isentris is the first fully supported, out-of-the-box, n-tier discovery informatics platform specifically designed for life sciences researchers. As the successor to MDL ISIS, Isentris offers biopharmaceutical organizations new opportunities for achieving tangible, bottom-line returns including more innovative, successful research, improved productivity and increased profitability.

MDL Isentris empowers life sciences corporations, research organizations and software development groups by providing:
* A research environment supporting business process, data and workflow integration
* Self-service access to integrated discovery data
* New pioneering methods for reducing data complexity
* An open, standards-based platform for faster application development

“Elsevier MDL is delivering revolutionary solutions on the Isentris platform,” said President and CEO Lars Barfod. “Isentris is the underlying technology for Elsevier MDL’s most recent discovery informatics solutions, including the hosted DiscoveryGate® research environment, the MDL® Discovery Logistics reagent sourcing and management solution, MDL Plate Manager and other valuable content and application initiatives. Making the complete Isentris package available to all our valued customers provides them with a great opportunity to leverage Isentris in delivering productivity and profitability improvements across the discovery domain.” 

MDL Isentris consists of four products: the revolutionary MDL® Base user interface, MDL® Draw chemical drawing and rendering software, MDL® Core Interface middle tier with Integrating Data Source and MDL® Direct chemical data cartridges for molecules and reactions.  To learn more about how Isentris integrates and energizes life sciences discovery, contact your Elsevier MDL Account Manager, or request information using the “Contact Us” form available at www.mdl.com.

About Elsevier MDL
Elsevier MDL provides informatics, database, workflow, and decision support solutions that accelerate the discovery and development of successful new drugs by improving the speed and quality of scientists’ decision making. Commercial, academic, and government life sciences 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. Working in partnership with the global science and health communities, the company publishes more than 1,800 journals and 2,200 new books per year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, online reference works, and subject-specific portals. For more information visit http://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 http://www.reedelsevier.com/.

CONTACT:
Phil McHale
Elsevier MDL
Vice President, Corporate Communications
(510) 895-1313 ext. 3541
p.mchale@mdl.com

 

 

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Wiley Interscience

 

Wiley Launches AntiBase 2005 and AmicBase 2005

Two new natural products databases designed to facilitate organic and biochemistry research

 

Hoboken, NJ, April 20, 2005 - Global publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc., today announced the launch of AntiBase 2005 and AmicBase 2005, two new comprehensive database products designed for researchers and scientists in organic chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals.

AntiBase 2005 is a database of 31,022 natural compounds from microorganisms and higher fungi. The data in AntiBase 2005 have been collected from the primary and secondary literature and then carefully checked and validated. Included in the database: descriptive data (molecular formula and mass, elemental composition, CAS registry number); physico-chemical data (melting point, optical rotation); spectroscopic data (UV, 13C-NMR, IR and mass spectra); biological data (pharmacological activity, toxicity); information on origin and isolation; and a summary of literature sources.

 

For those compounds where no measured spectra are available, the 2005 edition of AntiBase utilizes predicted 13C-NMR spectra produced by SpecInfo, the spectrum prediction program. Calculated high resolution molecular masses are also included in this new update.

Other features included in AntiBase 2005: structure and substructure search capabilities; drawing tools ISIS/Draw and Chemdraw to draw structure or substructure queries; physical and biological data search; and a feature search that enables the natural product chemist to identify a given compound if it has already been isolated and stored in the database.

 

Edited by Hartmut Laatsch of the University of Göttingen, Germany, AntiBase 2005 updates previous editions of the database released in 2002 and 2003, and will be updated annually.

 

AntiBase 2005 is available in the following formats: ISIS/Base and ChemFinder. For more information, please visit http://www.wiley.com/go/databases

 

AmicBase 2005 contains information about the antimicrobial and toxicological properties of pharmaceutical drugs and natural compounds produced through microorganisms and higher plants. Compound groups included in the database are approved antibiotic drugs available in United States, Japan and Europe and encompass antiseptics, disinfectants and preservatives used in food, cosmetics and in the pharmaceutical industry.

The database contains 160,149 data records of 7,474 compounds and includes: descriptive data (molecular formula and mass, CAS number, EINECS, 2D and 3D structures); inhibitory data (MIC and others) including a brief description of test method and references; and toxicology data (LD50), which also include short references.

 

AmicBase 2005 features unique functionalities including: structure and substructure searches; drawing tools to draw structure or substructure queries; searches by drug activity and microbial species; and displays that detail the antimicrobial spectra of drugs and calculates therapeutic indices from literature data. Searches can also be combined with compound structures or toxicological data.

 

AmicBase 2005 Drugs - a component of the larger AmicBase 2005 database - is a stand-alone database that contains information about the antimicrobial and toxicological properties of pharmaceutical drugs, and features detailed activity spectra of antibacterial and antifungal drugs marketed in Unites States, Japan, and Europe. The database contains 57,718 data records from 608 compounds and includes: descriptive data (molecular formula and mass, CAS number, EINECS, 2D and 3D structures); inhibitory data (MIC and others) with a brief description of test methods and references; and toxicology data (LD50), which also include short references.

 

AmicBase 2005 Drugs features a unique tool that allows users to get information quickly about the antimicrobial activity of drugs being used to treat human infectious diseases. Other features include: structure and substructure searches; drawing tools to draw structure and substructure queries; searches by drug activity and microbial species; and displays that detail the antimicrobial spectra of drugs and calculates therapeutic indices from literature data. As with the larger AmicBase database, searches can also be combined with compound structures or toxicological data.

 

AmicBase 2005 Plants - also a stand-alone component of AmicBase 2005 - is a database that collects information about the antimicrobial and toxicological properties of natural compounds produced by higher plants, and contains data on compounds produced from preservatives, fatty acids, and perfumery chemicals.

AmicBase 2005 Plants contains 77,149 data records from 4,986 compounds and also includes: descriptive data (molecular formula and mass, CAS number, EINECS, 2D and 3D structures); inhibitory data (MIC and others) with brief descriptions of test methods and references; and toxicology data (LD50) also with short references.

 

The search features for AmicBase 2005 Plants are the same as those for AmicBase 2005 Drugs and the larger AmicBase 2005 database.

Alexander Pauli is the editor of all three AmicBase databases.

 

AmicBase 2005 is available in CD-ROM in the following formats: MicroSoft Access, CambridgeSoft ChemFinder, and MDL ISIS/Base. For more information about these databases, please visit www.wiley.com/go/databases.

 

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FIZ CHEMIE Berlin

Infotherm

 

 

With Infotherm, Fachinformationszentrum Chemie GmbH (FIZ CHEMIE Berlin) now offers one of the largest internet-based databases world-wide that contains thermophysical material properties. This high-quality source of information covers approximately 24,000 chemical mixtures and approximately 6,600 pure compounds and provides information to e.g. planning offices and chemical engineering companies who want 24/7 access to up-to-date material data without the need for installed software and the corresponding data management.

 

The online database, programmed in XML, has been noticeably upgraded. Infotherm now offers more and improved functions for professional searches of chemical data on the internet. For example, the Boolean operators "and" and "or" can now be used to make logical combinations of search criteria to retrieve the property data of a particular mixture. The search terms can be linked in all combinations and in unlimited numbers. This function can be used to specify information requirements very accurately and to narrow down a search. Further improvements of Infotherm assist in the processing of the search results and their integration into company networks. For example, diagrams can now be downloaded as PDF files. The diagrams are shown directly on the display screen without the need to install the usual Java applet. Furthermore, it can be displayed as file that can be stored separately. This requires a SVG plugin that can be easily downloaded from the internet. The mouse cursor can be used to display interpolated values that lie between the measured values.

 

Retrievable data in Infotherm includes PVT properties, phase equilibria, transport and surface properties, calorific properties and solid-liquid equilibria. The information provided in the database has been compiled and evaluated by a team of highly qualified specialists using international publications in scientific journals, handbooks, data collections as well as sources that are difficult to access, such as measurement protocols produced by the chemical industry or internal reports from research institutions. The data are checked in several quality control cycles before they are entered into the database.

 

Some of the retrievable data is free of charge, some is subject to charge. Basic data on pure compounds, in particular, can be accessed free of charge. There is a fee for certain data on the behaviour of pure materials and on mixtures.

 

For further information, please contact:

 

FIZ CHEMIE Berlin

Franklinstrasse 11                              PB 12 03 37

D-10587 Berlin                                   D-10593 Berlin

 

Internet:                                                http://www.chemistry.de/

E-mail:                                                 info@fiz-chemie.de

Dr. Jörg Homann                                Tel.:     (+49 30)  399 77-118

Head of Marketing                              Fax:    (+49 30)  399 77-135

                                                              E-mail:          homann@fiz-chemie.de

 

 

 

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CINF People in the News


Ann Bolek received the Distinguished Service Award from the Akron section of the American Chemical Society on December 8, 2004.

Edlyn Simmons, Section Manager for Patent Information in the Intellectual Property and Business Information Services Department at
Proctor & Gamble in the U.S., is being honored as the recipient of the International Patent Information IPI-Award 2005. More information

Hearty Congratulations to Ann and Edlyn,

Bob Buntrock can be reached at his new e-mail address which is Buntrock16@verizon.net.

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