The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre (CCDC) has archived the 500,000th small molecule crystal structure to the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). The database is considered the de facto standard for small-molecule chemical structures and has become an essential resource to scientists around the world.
Professor Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the UK Government, and chairman of the CCDC Board of Governors 1998-2000, said: 'The timely development of CCDC and the Cambridge Structural Database from very humble beginnings 45 years ago to become the key global source for crystal structures makes a remarkable story. The user-friendliness and versatility of the database has become the major resource for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and in the process has transformed their capability.'
The CSD’s 500,000th structure is the anti-convulsant drug Lamotrigine, published in Acta Crystallographica, C65, o460-o464, 2009, by Balasubramanian Sridhar and Krishnan Ravikumar of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad.