Databases developed to assist chromatographers with selecting the most appropriate methods for chiral separations from the large number of stationary phases and operating conditions
Advanced Chemistry Development has signed agreements with the ENSSPICAM ChirBase Office at the University of Aix-Marseille III (UDESAM, Mixed Research Unit of Chirotechnology), France, and Bernhard Koppenhoefer at the University of Tubingen, Germany, to sell the acclaimed ChirBase, ChirBase/GC, and ChirBase/CE databases of chiral separations to the North American market as ACD/ChromManager-formatted databases.
The ChirBase databases were developed to assist chromatographers with the challenge of selecting the most appropriate methods for chiral separations from the large number of stationary phases and operating conditions available.
The databases continue to be maintained and updated with HPLC data by Dr Christian Roussel and Dr Patrick Piras at Aix-Marseille, and GC and CE data by Koppenhoefer's research group at Tubingen.
The newly formatted ChirBase for ACD/Labs database contains over 100,000 chiral HPLC separations, including data for 30,000 unique structures linked to over 1400 unique chiral selectors.
ChirBase/GC for ACD/Labs contains over 24,000 separations for more than 8000 structures, and ChirBase/CE contains information on over 8000 separations for 2000 structures.
ChirBase and ChirBase/GC are searchable on all experimental conditions, as well as by structure, substructure, and structure similarity.
ChirBase/CE is searchable by structure, substructure, and structure similarity.
Michael McBrien, chromatography product manager at ACD/Labs, states: "Chiral method development remains a bottleneck in the development of drugs and other biologically-active compounds today. "We're very excited to be able to provide a tool that helps to alleviate this problem.
"ChromManager users now have access to the single largest chromatographic knowledge base in the world".
Dr Piras at UDESAM adds, "This collaboration will allow us to offer to our new and existing users a larger selection of searching strategies and solutions. "By combining our experience on chiral technology and data production capabilities with the powerful organization and technology of ACD/Labs, we open exciting new approaches to generate valuable and relevant knowledge from data and consequently to reduce cost and increase productivity during the entire chiral drug discovery and development process". According to Roussel at UDESAM, "The field of chiral drug discovery has evolved rapidly over the past two decades due mainly to the changing requirements of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
"Researchers are now using chiral separations more and more as a primary research and production tool to assist drug discovery efforts.
"ACD/Labs has today the potential to improve the predictive potential of the scientific information available in ChirBase, and make a significant impact on the US market of Chiral Technology currently estimated at $1.2 billion in 2003".
Users of ChirBase, ChirBase/GC, and ChirBase/CE for ACD/Labs will be able to search the database simultaneously with the ACD/Chromatography Applications Database and other ACD/ChromManager-archived methods using ACD/ChromManager as their search tool.
