INTRODUCTION 



The following descriptions of the Chemical- Biological Coordination Center, its mechanical 

 equipment, and the Biology Code will introduce the reader to the objectives of the Center and the Code. 

 However, reference should also be made to the Appendix. The sections of this Introduction and the 

 Appendix form a unit which explains how the Center attempted to meet its objectives, some of the 

 inherent problems, and its accomplishments. 



The Chemical- Biological Coordination Center 



The Chemical- Biological Coordination Center (CBCC) was established on the premise that corre- 

 lations exist between molecular structures of chemicals and biological responses to those chemicals 

 and that studies of structures of chemicals causing known biological responses and of responses caused 

 by chemicals of known structure could be of increasing orientative significance in research. Such 

 studies should be a guide in (1) selection, synthesis, or search for chemicals to be tested for a given 

 biological response and in (2) selecUng appropriate responses for which a given chemical should be 

 tested. The basis for such studies was conceived as a collection of data demonstrating the known 

 biological actions of chemicals whose structures are known. The CBCC strived especially to collect 

 the diverse but often meager existing information about biological responses to thousands of tested 

 compounds, rather than to attempt an analysis of the detailed data on the biological responses to only 

 the more well-known and exhaustively tested compounds. The latter Information is normally available 

 from monographs, reviews, and textbooks, while the former is frequently difficult to find in the literature 

 or is unpublished. To make practical the study of such a large collection of data, mechanical means 

 must be used for sorting and arranging the information, procedures which involve enormous and imprac- 

 tical expenditures of time when done manually. Thus, the CBCC required a means of converting chemical 

 and biological information to a language of symbols which could be Inscribed on a mechanical system. 

 At the Ume the CBCC was established, no scheme was known to exist which could satisfy the specific 

 and broad needs of the CBCC, either for chemical structures or for biological information. 



It is not the purpose here to present a detailed history of the CBCC and describe all its activi- 

 ties; it is hoped that this may eventually be possible. However, certain observations on its evolution 

 and activities which bear particularly on the Biology Code and the CBCC collection of biological data 

 are appropriate. (The sponsors of the Center and the names of committee members and staff members 

 are listed following this Introduction.) 



Although the CBCC had collected and organized considerable information from chemical-biological 

 tests prior to the adoption of the present Biology Code, the collecting during that earlier period had to 

 play a subordinate and supportive role to the major objective of developing methods for coding and 

 handling the information. That picture was altered with the adoption of the Code in essentially the 

 form presented here. In 1951, having developed the methods to do so, the Center decided to concen- 

 trate on assembling information from every available source to create a file of data of the broadest 

 nature which would permit any conceivable correlation in all fields of biology and with all types of 

 chemicals. This decision was made only by resolving to abandon sponsorship of symposia and prepa- 

 ration of reviews, several of which had been organized prior to 1951; with the funds available, it was 

 not possible to meet both objectives adequately. It seemed reasonable that the path for the Center 

 should be In original directions, not in sponsoring symposia and reviews which, for the immediate 

 future, might be accomplished by other agencies. 



Thus, the CBCC organized during 1951 procedures for collecting information and coding it by the 

 previously developed coding scheme. This involved finding coding personnel with adequate biological 

 training, designing a means of training personnel for coding, and establishing a pattern for handling the 

 selection of data to be coded, assigning it to appropriate coders, checking the coding, recording, filing, 

 and IBM punching. A description of each of these procedures is included in the Appendix. 



It should again be emphasized that the Center's activities from 1951 were concentrated on build- 

 ing its collection of information and improving its coding (indexing) of the information. Therefore, the 

 evaluation of the Center should be in terms of the contemporary needs for a collection of such special 

 information and for effective methods of handling and indexing it. Correlative studies of structures 



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