Opinions of Databases and Cheminformatics in Pharmaceutical Research

This week, a survey was sent out to thirteen people (eleven university students, one post grad and one family member) who had agreed to take the survey after a short private correspondence. At the cut off time for the survey, nine of these people had responded. From this point on, those people will be referred to as respondents. The survey overall focused on the opinions people have on databases and cheminformatics in pharmaceutical research.

Original Survey Link (click to view)

The first question asked for this survey was “How would you describe your knowledge of and/or interest in chemistry?” to gauge the respondents for later questions, since pharmaceutical research is largely based in chemistry. Five of the respondents saw themselves as having a high interest/knowledge base in chemistry, whereas three respondents viewed themselves as moderate, and one respondent viewed themselves as neutral. No respondents chose Very High, Low, or Very Low. Most respondents were determined to have a fair basis to reasonably complete the rest of this survey with enough understanding of the topics discussed.

The second question asked respondents to comment on the importance of all pharmaceutical researchers to understand how to apply databases to their research. Seven respondents said definitively that all pharmaceutical researchers should understand how to utilize databases, and two respondents said “probably.”

For the third question, the focus was on how skilled pharmaceutical researchers that do use databases should be in the actual mechanisms of databases. This question had the largest split in responses, with all four options being chosen by at least one of the respondents. People do not agree on if pharmaceutical researchers need to be able to construct databases or just use them - this split could have been influenced by the field of the respondents and how heavily their chosen field is focused in chemistry and technology.  Four respondents thought that researchers should generally understand how databases work, whereas one respondent thought researchers should be so strong in databases that they could develop one of their own - on the other side, three respondents thought that researchers could pursue more knowledge on databases but do not need to, whereas one respondent thought that the researchers should focus on utilizing the databases more than understanding them.

The fourth question asked for open ended answers from the respondents on what purposes researchers may need to have coding skills for. Some common responses had to do with coding for databases and websites. A very specific example was to simulate drug design and help patients through computing; another response talked more generally about using the computer to model aspects of chemistry and biology. 

The fifth and last question asked if undergraduate students with an interest in pharmaceutical research should gain a strong level of understanding of databases and cheminformatics now or later. Answers ranged from maybe to yes, so all respondents thought at the very least that it could not hurt to begin to understand these aspects of computing.

It is also highly likely that the information provided throughout the survey assisted in gaps of knowledge the respondents may have had, because of the specificity of this survey and the technicality of this field.

These results show that respondents do believe that databases are important, especially for pharmaceutical researchers. Databases are quite expensive, and it is not clear from this survey if respondents were aware of this or not. However, most databases are funded by the government and used by so many people around the world that the cost is worth it - especially since pharmaceutical research focuses on bettering the health of people who need it. Most respondents did not think that pharmaceutical researchers need to be well versed in how to make and upkeep databases, or be able to code, though the respondents provided reasons the researchers could if they chose. Most database management is likely performed by computer scientists and not by the researchers who utilize the databases anyways, so it is not necessary for those researchers to understand the mechanisms of the databases, though it could be helpful. It is important to note that the databases that researchers are using are likely supervised, because the researchers would know what information they are looking for - this changes how those running and using the databases interact with them.

What does this mean for the future? It would definitely be helpful if undergraduate students studying chemistry receive exposure to databases and how they work during their coursework, and if all pharmaceutical researchers understood how to utilize databases in their research, even if they do not use them frequently.