The ZINC database is a curated collection of commercially available chemical compounds prepared especially for virtual screening

Virtual screening

Virtual screening is a computational technique used in drug discovery research. By using computers, it deals with the quick search of large libraries of chemical structures in order to identify those structures which are most likely to bind to a drug target, typically a protein receptor or...

. ZINC is used by investigators (generally people with training as biologist

Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...

s or chemist

Chemist

A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties such as density and acidity. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms...

s) in pharmaceutical companies

Pharmaceutical company

The pharmaceutical industry develops, produces, and markets drugs licensed for use as medications. Pharmaceutical companies are allowed to deal in generic and/or brand medications and medical devices...

,
biotech companies,
and research universities

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

.

Scope and access

ZINC is different from other chemical databases because it aims to represent the biologically relevant, three dimensional form of the molecule

Molecule

A molecule is an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms held together by covalent chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from ions by their electrical charge...

.

Curation and updates

ZINC is updated regularly and may be downloaded and used free of charge. It is developed by John Irwin in the Shoichet Laboratory in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of California, San Francisco

University of California, San Francisco

The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...

.

Version

The latest release of the website interface is "ZINC 11"(2011).
The database contents are continuously updated. Static subsets are generated regularly and are dated.

See also

• DUD database is a directory of useful decoys derived from ZINC
• DOCK Blaster is a virtual screening service that docks molecules from ZINC
• PubChem
  PubChem
  PubChem is a database of chemical molecules and their activities against biological assays. The system is maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information , a component of the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the United States National Institutes of Health . PubChem can...
  
   a database of small molecules from the chemical and biological literature, hosted by NCBI
  NCBI
  NCBI may refer to:* National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health* National Coalition Building Institute, a U.S. non-profit training group...
  
  
• ChEMBL
  ChEMBL
  ChEMBL or ChEMBLdb is a manually curated chemical database of bioactive molecules with drug-like properties.It is maintained by the European Bioinformatics Institute , based on the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, UK. The database, originally known as StARlite, was developed by a...
  
  , a database of information about medicinal chemistry and biological activities of small molecules.