From molecules to meaning: A search engine developed for the chemistry of life

An international team led by researchers at University of California San Diego and University of California, Riverside has developed a free, web-based platform designed to make public metabolomics data more accessible. By allowing users to search for chemical structures across billions of chemical spectra (the unique signatures of molecules) spanning thousands of studies, the tool has the potential to make "big-data" metabolomics as straightforward as a standard internet search. It can be used to discover new metabolites, track drug exposures and connect specific molecules to diseases or environmental sources. The study was published in Nature Biotechnology.