The BindingDB project was conceived in the mid-1990s, based upon recognition of the broad value of quantitative affinity data and the inadequacy of journal articles as a means of making these data accessible. A NIST-sponsored workshop in September 1997 validated the concept, and funding from the NSF and NIST enabled initial development of the database with a collection of data for systems of many types, including protein-ligand, protein-protein, and host–guest binding. However, hopes that the database would be populated primarily through depositions by experimentalists were not borne out, and it became clear that the project would have to take responsibility for extracting data from the literature. Given the vastness of the molecular recognition literature and limitations in available resources, this meant that creating a useful database would require limiting attention to a well-defined set of high-value binding data.
