Sites of interest on the World Wide Web—edited by Rick Neubig and David Roman
Keeping Up-to-Date on Current High-Impact Literature
This month’s Molecular Interventions includes an interview with pharmacologist Geoffrey Burnstock conducted at the Purines 2004 Meeting in Chapel Hill, NC. Burnstock is listed as ISI’s most cited pharmacologist during the ten year 1992–2002 period. Thomson ISI has been in business providing research resources for over forty-five years, and the Web site www.in-cites.com/hotpapers is a handy portal to some of the most interesting recently published papers in a wide range of disciplines. The database of most-cited papers is updated bimonthly, and serves as a tool to examine the hottest papers in twenty-two different fields at-a-glance. The Web site is arranged by subject area that provides easy navigation to the most pertinent areas of a specific field of interest. Perhaps more importantly, it provides a source to look, outside of one’s own area of expertise, at exciting research underway in other fields.
GPCR Mutation Database
Researchers involved in GPCR-related research have a convenient resource for lending some help to mutational analysis planning. The G protein–Coupled Receptors Mutant Database at http://www-grap.fagmed.uit.no/GRAP/homepage.html, maintained by Kristiansen, Dahl, and Edvardsen at the University of Tromsø in Norway, provides information and literature links to published GPCR mutants. This Web site provides advanced searching functions by mutation, receptor, and even the nature of an amino acid substitution. Alignments of different GPCR classes are also available. The database comprises over 10,500 mutants and links to over 1,300 research articles.
FDA New Drug Application Guide
This month’s Reflections focuses on filing a new drug application with the FDA. A visit to the New Drug Application (NDA) Process Web site provides some in-depth information about what it takes to bring a drug from the bench to the marketplace. It is an interesting site for scientists interested in drug discovery, located at http://www.fda.gov/cder/regulatory/applications/nda.htm.
Quick Links
Beckman provides an online calculator for centrifuge rotor speed conversions (http://www.beckman.com/resourcecenter/labresources/centrifuges/rotorcalc.asp). Choose from a pre-configured Beckman rotor or enter the parameters for any other rotor for quick rpm/rcf conversions.
Chemical and Radiochemical Calculations Made Easy
Speaking of quick calculations, Harvey Motulsky’s GraphPad Prism is one of the most popular and powerful software packages for the analysis of pharmacological and other types of data. The GraphPad Web site features a series of powerful and easy-to-use Web based calculators for quick calculations for making stock solutions, conversion of EC50 values, and other commonly used scientific calculations and conversions. This Web site (www.graphpad.com/quickcalcs) should be on every pharmacologist’s “favorites” list.
- © American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Theraputics 2004
