Home : Pressroom

Dialog & InfoChem Offering Chemical Structure Searching Through Dialog^® Online Service

CARY, N.C., USA (May 2, 2005) — Dialog, a Thomson (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) business and a leading worldwide provider of online-based information services and integrated information solutions, said today that it has partnered with InfoChem GmbH, a global market leader in chemical structure and reaction handling and retrieval, to provide users of its Dialog® online service with chemical structure searching of more than 10 million chemical compounds.

"We've combined the strengths of the two companies to offer chemical structure searching to our researchers around the world," said Cynthia Murphy, Dialog senior vice president. "InfoChem is providing its powerful search engine capability to facilitate chemical structure searching, while we continue to provide a broad and deep array of content."

Added Murphy, "Searching our databases of scientific and technical research by chemical structures is a big advantage — it helps users find the relevant research they need, quickly and accurately."

Dialog users can conduct chemical structure searches within well-known and respected databases of chemical information, including:

• Beilstein Facts (Dialog File 390)
• Derwent Chemistry Resource (File 355)
• Prous Drug Data Report (File 452)
• Pharmaprojects (Files 128, 928)

Murphy noted that Dialog's extensive collection of chemical research includes the most in-depth content available dealing with new drug compounds in product development pipelines. Further, researchers using DialogLink 5 can search by chemical structure in multiple databases simultaneously.

"Dialog is the ideal starting point for chemical research of drug pipelines and life science applications," Murphy said.

The new chemical structure searching feature is powered by the InfoChem Cartridge, a tool developed by InfoChem to integrate chemical structure and reaction retrieval in relational database management systems (RDBMS). The application uses the InfoChem Fast Search Engine (ICFSE) to handle and search within millions of structures and reactions.

Through its alliance with InfoChem, Dialog also is offering substructure highlighting, allowing users to easily analyze and refine their search results.

The chemical structure search functionality was released earlier this year as part of the new and enhanced features available through DialogLink 5, a software package used by information professionals to manage in-depth research and distribution of retrieved results to others within a company and other organizations. (For more information on DialogLink 5, please visit www.dialog.com/products/dialoglink.)

"Our Chemistry Cartridge has proven its exceptional searching and indexing performance with millions of different structures," said Peter Loew, Ph.D., managing director, InfoChem GmbH. "Working with Dialog gives us the great opportunity to serve a wider range of researchers in the global chemical community."

Once a chemical compound is identified, Dialog users may quickly link to related research sources, such as patent documents, articles published in scholarly journals, news reports about manufacturers and an extensive range of other content options.

DialogLink 5 software is now available for free download at www.dialog.com/products/dialoglink.

-End-

About InfoChem
InfoChem GmbH (www.infochem.de), based in Munich, Germany, is a market leader in structure and reaction handling and retrieval. Founded in 1989, InfoChem focuses on the production and marketing of new chemical information products, including structural and reaction databases, and the development of software tools required for these applications. The main software tools provided are the InfoChem Fast Search Engine (ICFSE), the InfoChem Chemistry Cartridge for Oracle, reaction center identification and the widely used InfoChem reaction classification algorithm CLASSIFY. In addition, InfoChem distributes one of the largest structural and reaction files worldwide, currently containing 4.5 million organic and organometallic compounds and facts and 4 million reactions covering the chemical literature published since 1974 (SPRESI). InfoChem's customers are large chemical and pharmaceutical companies as well as small high-potential start-ups worldwide. Springer-Verlag ( Heidelberg) has held a majority interest in InfoChem since 1991. Since September 2003, Springer-Verlag has belonged to the investment group Cinven and Candover.

About Dialog and The Thomson Corporation
Dialog, a pioneer in developing the technology behind electronic information retrieval, is the world leader in providing online-based information services to organizations seeking competitive advantages in such fields as business, science, engineering, finance and law.

Today, the online services provided by Dialog — offered through the Dialog®, Dialog Profound®, Dialog DataStar®, Dialog NewsEdge® and Dialog Intelliscope® brands — give users the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 1.4 billion unique records, accessible via the Internet or through delivery to enterprise intranets. Searchable content includes articles and reports from thousands of real-time news feeds, newspapers, broadcast transcripts and trade publications, plus research reports and analyst notes providing support for financial decision-making, as well as in-depth repositories of scientific and technical data, patents, trademarks and other intellectual property data. Information professionals and end-users at business, professional and government organizations in more than 100 countries prize Dialog services for their depth and breadth of content, precision searching and speed.

Based in Cary, N.C., USA, Dialog has operations in 27 other countries. Dialog (www.dialog.com) is a business of The Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). With 2004 revenues of US$8.1 billion, Thomson (www.thomson.com) is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers.

-30-

All designated trademarks used herein are the property of The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries. Registered marks are registered by The Dialog Corporation or its subsidiaries with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. All other marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Media contacts

top