Research Guides: Biology: Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

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Molecular biology and biochemistry resources

SciFinder
SciFinder, from CAS, is one of the core databases for chemistry and related sciences, including biochemistry, chemical engineering, materials science, nanotechnology, environmental science, physics, mechanical engineering, health sciences, and more. It indexes references from journal articles, patents, conference proceedings, and more, as well as chemical substances, protein and nucleic acid sequences, and single and multi-step reactions.
Web of Science (WoS)
Global citation database provides access to the Science Citation Index expanded from 1900 to the present, Social Sciences Citation Index from 1956 to the present, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index from 1975 to the present.
Reaxys
Searches across the Beilstein, Gmelin, and EcoPharm databases, which include reaction and substance data for organic, inorganic, organometallic, and bioactive compounds. Reaxys also allows synthesis planning and chemical sourcing.
Engineering Village: Compendex
The Compendex database provides deep coverage of global engineering literature. Also includes literature in the following related areas: applied physics, optics, bioengineering, biotechnology, food science and technology, materials science, instrumentation, medical devices, and nanotechnology.
Scopus
An abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Content covers research output in the fields of physical science, health science, life science, technology, medicine, and social sciences.
Knovel
Interactive books and databases containing a large number of online science and engineering handbooks, in subject areas of chemistry, materials science, and engineering.

UC Irvine's access to this database will end after 31 December 2025.
CHEMnetBASE: Chemical Databases Online
A collection of interactive chemical databases, chemical dictionaries, and the CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics.
Science of Synthesis
Full-text resource for methods in synthetic organic chemistry.
PubChem
Mostly contains small molecules, but also larger molecules such as nucleotides, carbohydrates, lipids, peptides, and chemically-modified macromolecules. We collect information on chemical structures, identifiers, chemical and physical properties, biological activities, patents, health, safety, toxicity data, and many others.
Landolt-Börnstein
A vast collection of volumes of tables of physical and chemical properties of materials. The University of California has access to the archival collection of LB online via the Portico site. At present, the volumes are listed alphabetically by their English titles, but eventually will be grouped into subject sections for easier browsing. Earlier volumes (to the 1980's) are in German.
The Merck Index Online
Authoritative and reliable source of information on chemicals, drugs and biologicals.

e-EROS
Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis.
Fieser and Fieser's Reagents for Organic Synthesis
Online database version of the standard reference work describing reagents of use to organic chemist.
Comprehensive Organometallic Chemistry III
Presents a comprehensive overview of the major developments in the field since 1993 providing general and significant insights. Highlights the expansion of applications in organometallic chemistry with a strong organic synthesis focus. Provides a structured first point of entry to the key literature and background material for those planning research, teaching and writing about the area.
National Center for Biotechnology Information
Cross-database searching from NCBI.
Organic Syntheses
Annual collections of detailed, reliable, and carefully checked procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds.
NIST Chemistry Webbook
This site provides thermochemical, thermophysical, and ion energetics data compiled by NIST under the Standard Reference Data Program.

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General Searches Searches:
- Formula
- Name
- IUPAC identifier
- CAS registry number
- Reaction
- Author
- Structure

Physical Property Based:
- Ion energetics properties
- Vibrational and electronic energies
- Molecular weight
ACersNIST Phase Diagrams Database
Phase Online functionality includes: search commentaries and diagrams by chemical system, published author’s last name, volume, language, publications year, and figure number; view diagram’s chemical system, figure number, figure notes, references, commentary and footnotes; and manipulate diagrams with zoom in/out, lever rule, curve follow, mirror, Mol% to Wt% or Wt% to Mol% and built-in calculator.

OSTI.gov Search Tools
From the Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information. Proceedings and papers from scientific meetings can be found in these fields, among others: particle physics, nuclear physics, chemistry, petroleum, aeronautics and astronautics, meteorology, engineering, computer science, electric power, fossil fuels.

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Also included are over 500,000 proceedings and papers indexed in the Energy Citations Database covering 1948 to the present. This is a free distributed portal that provides access to science and technology conference proceedings and papers from nineteen professional societies plus a number of national labs.
Cambridge Structural Database (Download Version)
The complete packages are several Gigabytes in size and requires site and confirmation codes to register the product after it is installed and for the quarterly updates issued by Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre.

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The CSD contains X-ray and neutron diffraction analyses of carbon-containing molecules having up to 1000 atoms (including hydrogens):
- Organics
- Compounds of the main group elements
- Organometallics
- Metal complexes

The CSD covers peptides of up to 24 residues; higher oligomers are covered by the Protein Data Bank.

The CSD covers mono-, di- and tri-nucleotides; higher oligomers are covered by the Nucleic Acids Database.

There is a small overlap between the CSD and the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD) in the area of molecular inorganics. Information on other metal-containing structures can also be found in the Metals and Alloys Crystallographic Database (CRYSTMET).
Cambridge Structural Database (Web Version)
Search the CSD by 2D chemical structure (substructure or similarity) using an embedded sketcher in WebCSD.
Entrez Molecular Sequence Database System
An online database search engine for retrieving molecular biology-related citations and records from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) databases.
UCSC Genome Browser
This site contains the reference sequence and working draft assemblies for a large collection of genomes. It also provides a portal to the ENCODE project.
The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR)
A database of genetic and molecular biology data for the model higher plant Arabidopsis thaliana . Data available from TAIR includes the complete genome sequence along with gene structure, gene product information, gene expression, DNA and seed stocks, genome maps, genetic and physical markers, publications, and information about the Arabidopsis research community. Gene product function data is updated every week from the latest published research literature and community data submissions.

Chemistry
by Mitchell Brown Last Updated Sep 29, 2025 6745 views this year