Bangalore, India
Molecular Connections today announced the licensing of its NetPro™ Database to Lion Bioscience Research Inc. (LBRI).
NetPro™, Molecular Connections’ proprietary protein interaction database covers more than 30,000 expert curated and annotated protein-protein interactions. NetPro™ has been built using interaction data extracted with the company’s proprietary information extraction engine, M-CHIPS™. All the interactions are from peer reviewed published scientific literature and have been validated through manual cross-checking by Molecular Connections’ in-house scientific team. Molecular Connections will issue subsequent updates to the database, which will include the latest advances recorded in scientific literature.
The NetPro™ database is organized in standard relational database format with built in front-end to effectively navigate and analyse the data. NetPro™ data is linked to public Ids (like LocusLink), facilitating integration of interactions information into proprietary drug discovery databases. The protein-protein interactions in NetPro™ are complemented with annotations of the profiled proteins with scientific literature information on a variety of important subjects, including –
* Cellular Localization
* Biological Pathways
* Species
* Experimental Technique
* Diseases implicated
* Gene Ontology
Anthony Caruso, President, Lion bioscience Research, Inc, mentioned “Protein interaction data are extremely valuable, but mostly only exists in the literature and not in well structured databases. The hand curated NetPro™ database provides a comprehensive and accurate account of known protein interactions, which will save us considerable time and money in our discovery efforts.”
Protein interactions play significant roles in various aspects of the structural and functional organization of the cell, and their elucidation sheds light on the molecular mechanisms of biological processes. Having a database of protein interactions will allow researchers to identify drugs that target pathways related to a specific disease while avoiding pathways associated with unwanted side effects and toxicity. Key to advancing our knowledge of biochemical pathways and networks is the intelligent analysis and mining of available literature, which is a large untapped resource containing information about thousands of interactions.
“Protein-protein interactions are critical factors regulating the normal functions of cells and unraveling the interacting partners of a protein of interest is an invaluable way of understanding innate protein function” said Jignesh Bhate, Molecular Connections’ Founder and Director. “Moreover, the ability to analyze a large network of interacting proteins, combined with gene expression data, will play a critical role in identifying and validating potential drug targets”.
