CAS open-access dataset to help COVID-19 research

28-Apr-2020 - Last updated on 29-Apr-2020 at 12:47 GMT

(Image: Getty/Pantan Kamsan)

CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, has released a dataset of chemical compounds with known or potential antiviral capabilities.

As part of the group’s work with research and technology groups to tackle challenges presented by COVID-19, CAS is offering free access to a dataset of chemical compounds with potential ability to fight the virus.

The COVID-19 Antiviral Candidate Compounds Dataset contains nearly 50,000 chemical substances assembled from the CAS Registry with antiviral activity reported in published literature or that have structural similarities to known antivirals. It is available free of charge to use, and anyone can access the information.

Michael Dennis, CAS vice president of innovation, told Outsourcing-Pharma that CAS created the dataset to help address the challenge of fighting the pandemic.

“We have created this dataset, because CAS wants to do everything we can to accelerate the discovery of treatments and vaccines for COVID-19,” he said. “CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society. Our mission is truly to improve people’s lives….and we are continuing to fulfill that mission.”

According to CAS, this dataset is the first chemical substance collection contributed to the Allen Institute for AI's COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19).

Manuel Guzman, president of CAS, said the dataset (curated by its team of scientists) will enable researchers to make connections between already-published research to potentially accelerate treatments.

"I am deeply appreciative of the researchers and healthcare professionals on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. CAS is fully committed to leveraging our content, technology and expertise in every way possible to support them in overcoming this challenge and saving lives," he said. “We welcome inquiries from project teams that would benefit from contributions of additional data or services to support COVID-19 efforts."

Dennis told us that in addition to the COVID-19 Antiviral Candidate Compounds Dataset, CAS also recently released its COVID-19 Protein Target Thesaurus. Also curated by CAS scientists, the dataset consists of high-profile targets linked to the virus.

“We are working on adding protein targets and potency to the compound dataset; we are also exploring providing the 3D coordinates of the compounds,” he reported. “We believe this additional data will help the fight and we plan to make all of this available for free as well.”