Query Chem is a web-based program
that searches for information about chemical structures on the web. It is
distinctive because it is not limited to a single database, but instead
captures chemical information on the entire Internet using Google. Query Chem
works by taking a chemical structure in combination with other search terms,
finds similar structures using a selected chemical database, retrieves the names and synonyms of those matching chemicals, and performs a series of Google searches using the combination of your original search terms and each chemical's set of names. The user may choose to perform a structure similarity search using Tanimoto coefficients to find similar molecules or to perform a substructure search to find molecules containing the queried structure. If a structure similarity search is performed, the Tanimoto coefficient describing structural similarity is indicated alongside each match.
The following examples illustrate Query Chem's capabilities:
Chemical Structure:
CO[C@@H]1CC(CC(C)[C@@H]2CC(=O)[C@H](C)C=C(C)[C@@H](O)[C@@H](OC)C(=O)[C@@H](C)C[C@H](C)C=CC=CC=C(C)[C@H](C[C@@H]3CC[C@@H](C)[C@@](O)(O3)C(=O)C(=O)N4CCCC[C@H]4C(=O)O2)OC)CC[C@H]1O
You may also draw your compound structure using the JME Molecular Editor.
Search Terms:
"protein target"
Selected Chemical Database:
PubChem
You will notice the
search results
identify the structure as Rapamycin and the resulting Google searches retrieve "TOR" and "FKBP12" in the search results, the known targets of Rapamycin.
Click here for the Query Chem search results of
"metabolite" of Trandolapril
using
Chembank
.
Google searching can often be more of an art than a science, so if your query does not yield expected results, trying rewording it or including extra adjectives. At present, only the first thirty-two words of the final query are searched. Click on the "Google Query" links in your search results to edit the original Google searches or click on the "Google Scholar" links to search Google Scholar instead.
Query Chem uses Google's Web API to perform Google searches and is limited to 1,000 daily Google searches as per the rules of Google's licensing agreement. You are encouraged to obtain your own Google API key by registering at www.google.com/apis/ if you want more searches even if Query Chem exhausts its daily allotment (registration takes two minutes). If the server is too busy or the search key is exhausted, try using the "Links only" option to retrieve Google's results yourself.
Thank you for using Query Chem! Also check out the Query Science homepage.
Please send questions, bug reports, and comments about this page to Justin Klekota.