The National Library of Medicine (NLM) ChemIDplus system, a TOXNET database, is a searchable online dictionary of over 400,000 chemicals (including names, synonyms, and structures). Users can search ChemIDplus for chemical substances by toxicity or physical properties such as melting point, water solubility, molecular weight, and even chemical structure. The database is built on information gathered from over 100 sources, including FDA, NIH, and EPA databases; as well as substance and chemical lists maintained by European and Canadian regulatory authorities.
The FDA Substance Registry System (SRS) also acts as a major data source for NLM. ChemIDplus and SRS are valuable information repositories that serve scientists and safety professionals, policy makers, and the public.
DSFederal provides technical support for ChemIDplus and SRS; and we are very pleased to announce that our Project Manager Echo Wang, and Software Developer Janice Shih, received NLM Honor Awards for their work on these databases, at today’s 2017 NLM awards ceremony.
Echo and Janice are members of a small team that received a Division of Specialized Information Services group award. The team built an API function for ChemIDplus, which streamlines the search process by increasing connectivity. The API tool has markedly improved the ChemIDplus web application, making it notably more flexible and user-friendly. Users can now perform more complex searches (searching the entire database, including administrative data), and can also perform batch searches. The team also provided additional upgrades, such as pop-up help, new locators, and additional user enhancements, for both ChemIDplus and SRS.
Echo writes, "The National Library of Medicine is an incredibly valuable resource for the scientific and medical research community. We are honored to serve NLM's mission and to be part of this very talented team, and delighted to receive this award." DSFederal is very proud of Echo and Janice, and grateful to NLM for the opportunity to support its work.