ChEBI: re-engineered for a sustainable future

Area of Science:

• Bioinformatics
• Cheminformatics
• Ontology Development

Background:

• The Chemical Entities of Biological Interest (ChEBI) database provides a manually curated, open-access ontology of chemical compounds.
• Established in 2004, ChEBI's original infrastructure faced maintenance challenges due to its aging codebase.
• The database is crucial for understanding the roles of natural and synthetic compounds in biological processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the complete overhaul and modernization of the ChEBI database infrastructure.
• To ensure the continued availability, growth, and maintainability of the ChEBI resource.
• To introduce new features and capabilities while updating or deprecating redundant ones.

Main Methods:

• Complete modernization of the ChEBI infrastructure, including its codebase.
• Overhaul of associated tools: website, web services, and submission tool.
• Implementation of new features and deprecation of outdated functionalities.

Main Results:

• Successfully modernized ChEBI's infrastructure, enhancing its maintainability.
• Improved accessibility and usability of the ChEBI database and its associated tools.
• Introduction of new functionalities and streamlining of existing ones within the ChEBI ecosystem.

Conclusions:

• The infrastructure modernization ensures the long-term viability and evolution of ChEBI.
• The updated ChEBI resource will continue to support the global bioinformatics and scientific communities.
• Enhanced capabilities will facilitate broader use and integration of chemical entity data.