About IntEnz

IntEnz is the name for the Integrated relational Enzyme database. IntEnz contains enzyme data that is curated and approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NC-IUBMB). The goal is to create a single relational database containing enzyme data from three different sources:

  1. Trinity College Dublin (TCD) maintains on behalf of the Nomenclature Committee of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NC-IUBMB) the Enzyme Classification list and is involved in many other aspects of biochemical nomenclature.
    In 2005 it has released an enzyme database based on MySQL, which seems to be the main source of data for BRENDA (see below).
  2. The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) produces an Enzyme Nomenclature database (ENZYME).
  3. The Technical University of Braunschweig produces an enzyme function database (BRENDA), which contains a large amount of information on substrates, products, and inhibitors.

The EBI has already implemented a relational database version storing the most up-to-date version of the Enzyme Classification list (1) which contains enzyme data curated and approved by NC-IUBMB. The relational database IntEnz is further populated by corresponding data from the Enzyme Classification list of SIB (2) and from BRENDA (3).
The EBI has developed tools to maintain the database and allow propagation of new and updated biochemical terminology, which has been integrated into the database, to the other partners.

The EBI also set up Internet services which initially facilitate text-based searches against the relational databases such as the protein sequence databases in UniProt (Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, TrEMBLnew), the protein family signature database (InterPro), and Gene Ontology (GO).