Comparative Toxicogenomics Database's 20th anniversary: update 2025.

Area of Science:

• Environmental health
• Toxicology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database (CTD) has provided literature-based toxicogenomic data for two decades.
• CTD links chemicals to genes, proteins, phenotypes, diseases, and exposures, supporting environmental health research.
• The database has experienced substantial growth in data content and features.

Purpose of the Study:

• To commemorate CTD's 20th anniversary by reflecting on its growth.
• To provide an overview of CTD's expanded data content and new functionalities.
• To highlight improvements in curation, tools, and infrastructure.

Main Methods:

• Literature-based curation of toxicogenomic information.
• Integration of controlled vocabularies for linking lab and exposure data.
• Enhancements to curation workflows, including natural language processing and new tools.
• Upgrades to software and infrastructure for improved functionality.

Main Results:

• CTD now contains over 94 million toxicogenomic connections.
• New features include an exposure curation tool, improved CTD Tetramers, and Pathway View.
• Enhanced curation and infrastructure support analysis across the environmental health continuum.

Conclusions:

• CTD has evolved from a prototype to a premier knowledgebase for environmental health discovery.
• The database facilitates hypothesis generation for scientists studying chemical impacts on human health.
• Continued development enhances CTD's utility for understanding the molecular to population-level effects of environmental exposures.