Project Details:
Genochemistry -- chemistry designed for life sciences: Towards a guideline and a framework of genochemistry
| Project No.: | 2009-021-3-300 |
| Start date: | 2010-05-01 |
| End date: | |
| Division: | Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Division |
To develop and disseminate a guideline and framework for genochemistry (genomic chemistry) throughout the biocatalysis community and those working at the junction between biology and chemistry in order to compile tools from these various scientific fields to meet the challenges of the genomic era.
The volume of data from biological and chemical studies has been increasing exponentially in recent years. In particular, there are now 150 billion sequences within GenBank, 60k protein structures in PDB, and 50 million chemicals with unique structures (as of Sept. 7, 2009, CAS). As a result, one of the most important challenges has been the annotation of genetic sequences to their functions, and enzymes (encoded by their sequences) to their substrate profiles. A systematic study of chemistry that links the enzyme's sequence information (including SNP) and substrate structural diversity is needed. It differs from traditional disciplines in many ways and requires a restructuring of established methods, the standardization of the data collection process, and new bioinformatics and modeling tools. It can take the form of extended biocatalysis complemented by bioinformatics and molecular modeling. We tentatively refer to this discipline as Genochemistry.
Genochemistry study may improve our understanding of living systems through the accumulation of better information from genomic data. It may also save social resources by avoiding duplicate measures and making progressive models. As such, it depends on IUPAC’s global reach and recognition to facilitate wide dissemination and coordination within the community.
Previous IUPAC supported projects have made an inventory of the importance of chemistry for biology. This project will further distill these ideas and compile the tools necessary to form a strategy to tackle these new challenges. Specifically, it aims to supply a guideline and framework for Genochemistry as well as a glossary of more specialized terms.