PubChem was created in 2004 as part of the NIH Roadmap – it was intended to be a “”https://nihroadmap.nih.gov/initiatives.asp">new and comprehensive database of chemical structures and their biological activities … [which would contain] compound information from the scientific literature as well as screening and probe data from the [Molecular Libraries Screening Center Network]."

Nature Chemical Biology was one of the first journals to deposit chemical structures into this database, and according to Stephen Bryant, the amount of data is rapidly growing: the database now contains over five million unique structures and more than 190 bioassays.

It sounds like this database will make it easier for chemists and biologists to find interesting bioactive small-molecules. And the best part? Like PubMed, the data is freely available to the entire scientific community…

Joshua

Joshua Finkelstein (Associate Editor, Nature)

Mice are shown to have two thymus organs, not just one

After a century of scrutinizing the laboratory mouse, one might imagine that scientists would know the creature’s body like the back of their own hands. Think again, because German researchers say they have discovered a whole new organ.

Read the full story here.