The Guide to Pharmacology

This website, created in a collaboration between The British Pharmacological Society (BPS) and the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR), is intended to become a “one-stop shop” source of quantitative information on drug targets and the prescription medicines and experimental drugs that act on them. We hope that the Guide to Pharmacology will be useful for researchers and students in pharmacology and drug discovery and provide the general public with accurate information on the basic science underlying drug action. It provides a single entry point to:

  • A searchable online database of information from the 5th (2011) edition of the BPS Guide to Receptors and Channels (GRAC), which provides a succinct overview of the key properties of over 1600 established or potential pharmacological targets. This online version of GRAC is enhanced with hyperlinks to additional information in the IUPHAR database, curated chemical structures and citations in PubMed. To view the data, click on the image below.
    • View the GRAC 5th edition table of contents.
    • Read the GRAC 5th edition introduction for further information about GRAC.
    • Download the GRAC 5th edition as a PDF.
  • The IUPHAR database (IUPHAR-DB), which provides in-depth coverage of the properties of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), ion channels and nuclear receptors and their ligands, intensively curated and peer-reviewed, with the chemical substances rigorously defined with molecular descriptors. To view the data, click on the image below.

This is the inaugural launch edition of the Guide to Pharmacology. Over time, these two separate resources will steadily be integrated and expanded to include major areas of interest to pharmacology with links to other websites.

The Guide to Pharmacology is developed within the University/BHF Centre for Cardiovascular Science at the University of Edinburgh by the IUPHAR database team: Prof Tony Harmar, Dr Joanna Sharman, Dr Adam Pawson and Ms Helen Benson. Please email all enquiries to enquiries@guidetopharmacology.org. For information on how to cite the data please visit this page.

The British Pharmacological Society (BPS) has, at its heart, the development and promotion of pharmacology and of those who are training and working in the field. With around 3000 members from 60 countries around the world, it is an organization with international reach.

BPS covers the whole spectrum of pharmacology, including laboratory, clinical, and toxicological aspects, and supports its members at work in academia, industry and the health service by providing high quality scientific meetings and educational activities, through policy initiatives, and through its journals, the British Journal of Pharmacology and the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

The Guide to Receptors and Channels (GRAC), which is a supplement of the British Journal of Pharmacology, provides the Guide to Pharmacology with essential information on drug targets. This data is provided succinctly, so that a newcomer to a particular target group can identify the main elements "at a glance". BPS is proud of the role this popular resource will play alongside the database of our project partners, the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR).

BPS welcomes applications for membership from all those involved in pharmacology or related disciplines, and offers complimentary or reduced rates at scientific meetings, complimentary access to its journals and a range of bursaries, travel grants and awards to encourage our members in their scientific careers.

Founded in 1959 as a section of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, the International Union of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology (IUPHAR) has been independent since 1966. IUPHAR is a member of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and participates in the work of its scientific committees. It receives international recognition, particularly by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The IUPHAR Committee on Receptor Nomenclature and Drug Classification (NC-IUPHAR), founded in 1987, is chaired by Michael Spedding (France) and has the mission of issuing guidelines for receptor and ion channel classification, addressing the main issues in pharmacology today, classifying the major receptor and ion channel systems, facilitating the interface between the discovery of new sequences from the Human Genome Project and the designation of the derived proteins as functional receptors and ion channels and maintaining a website (http://www.iuphar-db.org) with access to data on all known receptor systems, freely available to all scientists, anywhere in the world. NC-IUPHAR publishes articles on receptor nomenclature and guidelines for terminology in Pharmacological Reviews, in collaboration with ASPET and, starting in 2012, will also publish reviews on other topics in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

Click here for the full publication list.