Cambridge Scientists Archive 500,000th Crystal Structure

CAMBRIDGE, England, December 10 - The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) is proud to announce an
important milestone in the history of crystallography - the archiving of the
500,000th small molecule crystal structure to the Cambridge Structural
Database (CSD). This unique, scientifically rigorous database, built over 45
years, is the international de facto standard for small-molecule chemical
structures and has become an essential resource to scientists around the
world.

Professor Sir David King, former Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK
Government, and Chairman of the CCDC Board of Governors 1998-2000, notes that
"The timely development of CCDC and the Cambridge Structural Database from
very humble beginnings 45 years ago to become the key global source for
crystal structures makes a remarkable story. The user-friendliness and
versatility of the database has become the major resource for the chemical
and pharmaceutical industries, and in the process has transformed their
capability."

The CSD System incorporates a suite of flexible search and analysis tools
allowing chemical knowledge to be extracted from the raw crystallographic
data. Information derived from small-molecule crystal structures is vital to
structural chemistry research in its broadest sense, and in particular to
pharmaceutical drug discovery, materials design, drug development and
formulation. The database is also a rich resource for teachers and has
application across the entire span of the chemistry curriculum. There are
clear indications that this knowledge will be equally vital in the
development of future materials, such as gas-storage systems, and will play a
key role in the development of nano- and green-technologies.

Dr Colin Groom, Executive Director of the CCDC says that "the
determination of 500,000 crystal structures is a remarkable achievement.
However, the scientific community is hungry for the next 500,000 and the
knowledge these will undoubtedly bring. As the CSD grows both in size and in
the complexity of structures it contains, the database not only helps us to
answer our questions about molecular structure and interactions, but tells us
what those questions should be."

The CSD's 500,000th structure is the anti-convulsant drug Lamotrigine
(Lamictal(R)) which was discovered by GlaxoSmithKline and approved by the US
FDA for the treatment of epilepsy in 1994 and additionally for the treatment
of bipolar I disorder in 2003. The structure can be viewed at
www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk/halfmillionthstructure

Crystal structure of Lamotrigine

About The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre

Originating in the Department of Chemistry at the University of
Cambridge, and with UK Government funding, the CCDC is now a fully
independent institution constituted as a non-profit company and a registered
charity since 1989. The CCDC is financially independent, through annual
subscriptions received for CSD System access from academia and industry. The
CCDC has a strong track record in basic research through more than 700
peer-reviewed publications, and these papers have attracted more than 18,000
citations in the international scientific literature. More than 1,500 CSD
applications papers by non-CCDC authors have been similarly well received.

Web: www.ccdc.cam.ac.uk

For more information, contact: Dr Gary M. Battle, The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, Email: battle at ccdc.cam.ac.uk, tel no. T: +44(0)1223-763919