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ChEMBL

European Molecular Biology Laboratory - European Bioinformatics Institute
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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About

Launched: 2009
Record Updated: Sep 30, 2026
Open scholarly dataset
ChEMBL is a manually curated database of bioactivities for drug-like molecules. It brings together chemical, bioactivity and genomic data to support the development of effective new drugs. The data in ChEMBL comes from three main sources: bioactivity data curated from the medicinal chemistry literature, deposited datasets of bioactivities, and information on drugs and clinical candidates from regulatory authorities.
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Domain Relevance

  • Biological sciences
  • Chemical sciences

Mission

To make high-quality, curated bioactivity data openly accessible and useful for drug discovery.

Key Achievements

ChEMBL 36 (Oct 2025) included 2.8 M compounds and 17.8 K drug targets. Some highlights include Chemical Probe data extracted from the biomedical literature, the integration of patent data from BindingDB, and an update to the drug and clinical candidate information.
ChEMBL 37 (May 2026) included 2.9M compounds and 18.6 K drug targets. Some highlights include a new Targeted Protein Degradation annotation, an extensive update of literature data, new Donated Chemical Probbes datasets, and recuration of legacy organism-based assays.
ChEMBL is listed as both an ELIXIR Core Data Resource and Global Core Biodata Resource.

Technical Attributes

Maintenance Status

Actively Maintained

Technical Documentation

Implemented
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Open API

Implemented
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Open Data Statement

Implemented
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Technical Attribute Statements

Programming Languages

  • html
  • javascript
  • python
  • typescript

Technology Readiness Level

  • Actual system proven in operational environment

Code Licenses Used

  • MIT License

Content Licensing

  • Creative commons licenses

Standards

Metadata

  • JSON
  • REST
Other:
XML, YAML

Community Engagement

Community Statements

Engagement with Values Frameworks

  • FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship

More About Community Engagement

User Contribution Pathways:

Present and engage at User Group Meetings

Additional Information

Organizational History

The origin of ChEMBL is a proprietary database called StARlite developed by Inpharmatica. In 2008, a Strategic Award from the Wellcome Trust provided funding for the transfer of StARlite to EMBL-EBI where it was renamed ChEMBL (originally ChEMBLdb). John Overington moved with the database to EMBL-EBI setting up the Chemogenomics group to maintain and develop ChEMBL.

Organizational Structure

Business or Ownership Model

Intergovernmental organization

Full-time Staff

6-10

Volunteers

0

Funding

Primary Funding Source

  • Contributions

Revenue Sources

  • Grants (public)
  • In-kind contributions

Fiscal Host

EMBL
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