An integrated approach to three-dimensional information management with MACCS-3D.

In the past decade, the scientific community has realized the value of three-dimensional (3D) structural information and '3D searching' has started to become an important new methodology for computer-aided drug design. During this time, molecular modeling information generated from various sources has proliferated due to the growing availability of software and hardware and the increasing use of crystallographic and spectroscopic techniques. This information needs to be organized to allow for its effective storage and retrieval. This paper presents an approach to address this problem with a recently introduced program, MACCS-3D. In particular, this approach utilizes MACCS-3D's capability of handling data specific for atoms and atom pairs. With this software, various biological, computational, and spectroscopic data can be merged, allowing scientists from different disciplines to access and use this information more efficiently.