Next week I wlil be attending the Computer Aided Drug Design Gordon Research Conference (CADD GRC) in the US (Maine).
The last (and only) time I attended this meeting was 16 years ago. At that time I was a postdoc at the CCDC working on the GOLD docking software, and presented a poster "Why multiple scoring functions can improve docking performance". Right after my 5-minute flash presentation (see program), some random English guy presented his poster about a database with a funny name that was about to be released.
This was July 2009; three months later ChEMBL 01 would be released.
Even at the time, I recognised that this was a big deal. In academia, research was difficult if not impossible because of the lack of data. Meanwhile industry published research that used their internal data and couldn't be challenged, compared, or built upon. To quote a recent conversation with an industry figure, showing results on ChEMBL keeps everyone honest.
But as well as learning about ChEMBL, I got to know John Overington, who subsequently invited me to present on protein ligand docking and cheminformatics at various training courses he organised at the EBI, even after I moved back to Ireland. For me, this was a really great connection to have as it increased my profile, and I got to meet many of the leading figures in the field. In return, John got the occassional bug report emailed directly to his inbox which I'm sure was exactly what he wanted. :-) We've kept in touch over the years, and he has been a great help when I've needed it.
And so, I am returning to where it all started. Only this time I am the random English Irish guy with the poster about ChEMBL. And who knows, maybe I, in my turn, will meet a future custodian of ChEMBL...?
No comments:
Post a Comment