News

Improved Ligand Searching

03/09

Searching for ligands using the RCSB PDB's Advanced Search,  Chemical Structure Search, or top-bar pulldown search has been improved.

The "Chemical Name" search from the top-bar pulldown on every page returns matches to names of small molecules in the wwPDB Chemical Component Dictionary and any synonyms.  Searches by Chemical Name or ID will return structures with matching chemical components that are free ligands or are part of a protein or nucleic acid chain.

In the Advanced Search, searches can be specified to look for free and/or polymeric chemical components.  A "sounds like" option searches for misspelled or incomplete chemical component names.  Advanced Searches using SMILES strings use a similarity (instead of dissimilarity) threshold while specifying polymeric type.

The Chemical Structure Search utilizes the latest version of the ChemAxon MarvinSketch applet (5.3.0.1).  Tutorials and screencasts are available to help explore these features.

A detailed description with examples of these new features is available.

For an overview of all recently-added features, see the New Features widget box on the home page or click here.

News Index