DCP website FAQs

General definitions

What are donated chemical probes?

Donated chemical probes are compounds that were donated by pharmaceutical companies or leading academics to the research community to stimulate research and to explore target biology and its role in disease.

Probes must meet the following criteria:

• IC₅₀ or K_D < 100 nM
• Selectivity within target family > 30-fold
• Extensive off-target profiling outside the target family
• Cellular on-target specificity with IC₅₀ or EC₅₀ < 1 µM
• No PAINS (pan assay interference compounds) elements
• Ideally, availability of control compound, 100 times less potent than the probe

Please read more about the DCP progam in the "About" section.

How to donate a probe?

Chemical probes from academic lab and from the private sector can be donated to the research community through the DCP program. Probe donations comprise physical material, characterisations data, synthetic routes, and the permission to distribute the probe. A donated chemical probe is accompanied by a negative control compound - a close chemical analogue of the probe that has similar physicochemical properties, but is inactive. Please read more about this topic in the "Donate probes" section or contact us for more information.

Why to use a negative control compound?

You are advised to always use a chemically related inactive control compound to make sure that the effect you see, when applying the probe, is caused by the inhibition of the target protein and not due to an unspecific reaction.

How to cite the DCP program in a publication?

If the DCP program provides compounds or data that are used in your publication(s) please cite the DCP program and let us know about your success! Citing the DCP and reporting the citation will help keep the DCP probes available to you.

1. Please cite the original publication: Donated chemical probes for open science, Müller et al Elife 2018 7:e34311.doi: 10.7554/eLife.34311.
2. Please add our URL to your publication: https://www.sgc-ffm.uni-frankfurt.de.
3. Report the citation via e-mail to frankfurt@thesgc.org

We do not feel that simple supply of compounds justifies inclusion as co-authors. If we add something more to a collaborative effort, please use normal academic standards for co-authorship.

How to acknowledge the DCP program in a publication?

We recommend using the following text "The DCP Library/DCP compound(s) was supplied by the Structural Genomics Consortium under an Open Science Trust Agreement: http://www.thesgc.org/click-trust".

Information available on our website

How often do you update the website?

There are no fixed dates for updates. Generally, the website is updated every two weeks.

Where to find additional probe information?

For every probe/control pair a pdf file with additional information is provided on the ‘overview’ page. In addition, the overview page contains links to primary literature, patents, ChEMBL database, and the chemical probes portal, if available.

DCP probes are provided with a comprehensive data package and screening data. For all probes and controls, a PDSP screen with 45 GPCR targets is carried out. To see the GPCR scan data, go to the "Probe overview" tab and click "View GPCR scan data". The PDSP screen is carried out subsequently after probe approval. If the data is not shown on the website, the screen is currently ongoing. For some probes a DiscoverX KINOMEscan with 468 kinases was perfromed. Click the "View KINOMEscan data" button on the "Probe overview" tab to view the data.

For most probes additional profiling or phenotypic data are available. These data are shown in the "Profiling assays" or "Phenotypic assays" tabs.

Please note that loading of the large profiling data sets takes some time.

How to download profiling data?

Profiling data (KINOMEScan, GPCR screening, phenotypic data, etc.) can be downloaded in MS Excel format either for individual probe/control pairs or for all DCP probes/controls

1. For an individual probe/control pair go to “Data download” tab on the probe page.
2. For all DCP compounds go to "Download" button in the menu bar on top of each page.

How to use the search function?

There are several search options on the start page of the DCP website. You can use the keyword search to find a specific probe or control. You can also use the keyword search to find probes for a specific target. By searching with a company name you receive a list with all probes from the specified company.

If you would like to get a list of probes for a target category such as kinases, GPCR etc. please use the dropdown menu below the keyword search.

Use the "Show all chemical probes" button on the start page to get an overview of all DCP probes. Click on the column header to sort targets or probe names alphabetically.

There is also a keyword search on top of the "Overview of all chemical probes" page.

Shipment, storage and usage

How to request DCP compounds?

Requesting a specific DCP compound is a 3 steps process:
Step 1: Go to the "How to order" tab on the probe’s page.
Step 2: Click the "Get probe and control sample from the SGC" link.
Step 3: Submit the filled form.

To request a DCP library set:
Step 1: Click the "Order set" tab of the menu bar on top of this or any other page.
Step 2: Click the link of the set you want to order. You have the option between the whole set containing all DCP compounds or a kinase or GPCR set.
Step 3: Submit the filled form.

Note that the compound samples are free but there is a handling and shipping fee (cf. "How much is the shipment?" section).

Please refer any questions to frankfurt@thesgc.org

CAUTION: Be aware the compound may be a salt. Please refer to the molecular weight on the tube/paperwork provided with your shipments.

How much of the DCP material is shared?"

The compound/library is pre-diluted 10 000 times in DMSO, according to the recommendation for cellular usage (1 or 10 mM stock solutions).
If you request the DCP library you will obtain 96 well plates with 5 µL of 1 or 10 mM stock solution in each well.
If you request a single compound you will receive a vial containing 5 µL of 1 or 10 mM stock solution.
Material is shipped on dry ice.
Please dilute to obtain the recommended cellular usage concentration (cf. "How to use" page).
If you require larger quantities of a specific probe/control pair, please contact us at frankfurt@thesgc.org.
We will try to facilitate the request, if possible, but we are not able to supply enough material for in vivo study due to availability of compounds. For larger quantities we recommend to order the compounds from our partner suppliers Tocris, Sigma and Cayman, when available.

How stable are the DCP compounds?

The compounds are not known to have any light or air sensitivities. However, researchers are advised to avoid multiple freeze-thaw cycles with the DCP compounds to ensure best results.
Please note that DMSO is hygroscopic so the water content will increase over time and the concentration will therefore change. This may also eventually affect the stability.

What are the costs for the shipment?

The DCP compounds are for free. The only costs incurred are the shipping fees. The compounds are sent on dry ice and the fees are depending on the quantity of dry ice needed for your package. The average shipment fees are between 100 € and 300 € from national shipments to major international hubs shipments. Please note that the costs can increase with distance to major cities.