title: The University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database: improving public access.
abstract: The University of Minnesota Biocatalysis/Biodegradation Database (UM-BBD, http://umbbd.msi.umn.edu/) began in 1995 and now contains information on almost 1200 compounds, over 800 enzymes, almost 1300 reactions and almost 500 microorganism entries. Besides these data, it includes a Biochemical Periodic Table (UM-BPT) and a rule-based Pathway Prediction System (UM-PPS) (http://umbbd.msi.umn.edu/predict/) that predicts plausible pathways for microbial degradation of organic compounds. Currently, the UM-PPS contains 260 biotransformation rules derived from reactions found in the UM-BBD and scientific literature. Public access to UM-BBD data is increasing. UM-BBD compound data are now contributed to PubChem and ChemSpider, the public chemical databases. A new mirror website of the UM-BBD, UM-BPT and UM-PPS is being developed at ETH Zürich to improve speed and reliability of online access from anywhere in the world.
authors.affiliation: Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
authors.forename: Junfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Lynda B M
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: Lawrence P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Wackett
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information; D001671:Biochemistry / Q000379:methods; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D001711:Biotransformation; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D004015:Dictionaries, Chemical as Topic; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods; D020407:Internet; D008829:Microbiology; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants