When information technology fuses with a discipline or branch of science, there is the origin of a new branch of science. The fusion of IT with geology is geoinformatics and the fusion of IT with biology is biotechnology. Nowadays a new entrant is coming into this fusion list and it is fusion of IT with chemistry thereby enabling the formation of new science called cheminformatics. The chemical information is stored and managed and chemical problems are solved with the help of information technology.

During chemical research a number of new compounds are synthesized continuously and a lot of information and data are generated. This continuously expanding chemical information is called as Chemical Information Explosion. Therefore, the management, collection and organizing of this huge chemical information in a systematic manner is essential and here comes the role of cheminformatics, which plays a great role in the effective management of chemical information.

About cheminformatics:

Cheminformatics is the storage and retrieval of molecular information about chemical compounds by computational method alone. This science has a wide application in discover of drugs, which is a complex research process that is aimed at making a chemical drug that causes biological effects. During the process of discovering drugs, researchers test many chemicals on biological systems and identified the desired effects generated by the drugs. If the drugs cause or induce the desired biological effects, the particular drug will be called as Drug lead. Once the drug leads are found, they are optimized, where in the beneficial properties are maximized and side effects are minimized. In the process addition, replacement or removal of chemical components is involved and a drug is developed after optimization, but it has to be further studied and tested.

Institutes for cheminformatics courses in India:

The institutes that offer diploma courses/training programmes in cheminformatics in India are:

• Department of Chemistry, Jamia Hamdard Deemed University, New Delhi

• Institute of Cheminformatic Studies, Noida

• Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode

Of these college Malabar Christian College at Kozhikode offers one-year PG Diploma course in Cheminformatics for which candidates with Master of Pharmacy, Master of Science in Bioinformatics or Master of Science in Chemistry are eligible to apply.

Government jobs in cheminformatics in India:

Even though, chemiformatics is at its infancy stage in India, some of pharmaceutical companies and research institutions running under the control of government are engaged in research in cheminformatics and candidates with appropriate qualifications can find job placement in these government-run organizations as researchers in the field of cheminformatics.