The human genome seems to encode for not more than 30,000 to 40,000 proteins. A major challenge is to understand how posttranslational events, such as glycosylation, affect the activities and functions of these proteins in health and disease. The importance of protein glycosylation is becoming widely realized through studies on protein folding, protein localization and trafficking, protein solubility, biological half-life as well as studies on cell-cell interactions. The progressing Glycomics projects will dramatically accelerate the understanding of the roles of carbohydrates in cell communication and lead to novel therapeutic approaches for treatment of human disease. The MIT's magazine of innovation (January 21 2003) has identified Glycomics as one of the top ten technologies that will change the future. To support the upcoming Glycomics projects we [German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg] focus our research activities on the development of bioinformatic tools and databases for glycobiology. ... [Information of the supplier]
Sequencing of the human genome has opened the way and provided the impetus for building a comprehensive picture of a mammalian cell. Significant efforts are underway in the fields of genomics and proteomics to identify all genes and proteins in a given organism. The goal is a complete map of the genes, gene products and their interaction networks in a functioning cell. The next step in establishing a comprehensive picture of a cell will be to tie the cell's metabolome into the rapidly developing genomic and proteomic maps. A cell's metabolome, however, is such an enormous and complex entity that characterizing it can only be approached in sections. This consortium is now proposing to focus on the lipid section of the metabolome by developing an integrated metabolomic system capable of characterizing the global changes in lipid metabolites ("lipidomics"). Our consortium has developed a Lipid Metabolites and Pathways Strategy, termed LIPID MAPS, that applies a global integrated approach to the study of lipidomics. ... [Information of the supplier]
MassBank is the first public repository of mass spectral data for sharing them among scientific research community. MassBank data are useful for the chemical identification and structure elucidation of chemical compounds detected by mass spectrometry. This website counts with the following features: a) distributed database, b) high precision and accurate mass spectra of primary metabolites and secondary metabolites, c) mass spectral search by exact m/z and browsing interface and d) search for merged spectra. A merged spectrum is generated from spectra of the identical compound measured in different CID conditions. The MassBank Record for each merged spectrum includes information of its original spectra. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
Humans perceive numerous compounds as bitter. The bitterness of a compound often provides a hint to its potential toxicity, and aversion from bitterness helps refrain from consuming poisons. Well known example is strychnine. Some other bitter compounds, such as caffeine, while toxic in high dosages, are palatable and is consumed in large quantities. The amount of bitter compounds is estimated in thousands. But what are these compounds? How similar or different are their chemical properties? Do they act on the same or on different receptors? Is it possible to predict bitterness of a molecule? To enable investigation into these intriguing questions, we established BitterDB, a free and searchable database of bitter compounds. BitterDB currently holds over 550 bitter compounds obtained from the literature and from Merck index and their associated 25 human bitter taste receptors (hT2Rs). BitterDB provides several ways to investigate the bitter world: search for bitter compounds by different criteria, search for bitter molecules with structure similar to a query compound, blast bitter receptors and more. ... [Information of the supplier]