HELM (Hierarchical Editing Language for Editing Macromolecules) is a machine-readable linear notation for representing biopolymers, including peptides, antibodies, oligonucleotides and therapeutic proteins whose size and complexity render existing small-molecule and sequence-based informatics impractical or unusable. HELM addresses this challenge through a hierarchical notation that represents complex macromolecules as polymeric structures and includes support for unnatural components (e.g., unnatural amino acids) and chemical modifications. Initially conceived internally at Pfizer to support the management of data associated with oligonucleotides, HELM was brought to the Pistoia Alliance for broader development and publication as an open standard in 2013. Pistoia Alliance is an industry group of pharmaceutical companies, vendors, academics & non-profits who collaborate on open, pre-competitive community projects to overcome common obstacles to innovation and to transform R&D. The specification for the core motif is stable and robust in its functionality and there is a well-established developer/user community leveraging the notation. HELM is recognized by FAIRsharing.org and as an ISO standard. In addition to the specification itself, the project has also developed and supported: -Open-source tools, including a web editor, antibody editor, & toolkit -Test set & monomers core set -Best practices & guidelines for monomers -Community activities & resources (openhelm.org) Areas of future interest for expansion include glycans, lipids, and canonicalization of monomers. To ensure the sustainability of the HELM notation through ongoing curation and response to new needs and applications, the Pistoia Alliance and IUPAC have initiated a project to plan for future development and adoption of HELM as an IUPAC standard in order to capitalize on IUPACs recognized authority in chemical representation to formalize the standard, support ongoing scientific development, embed it in IUPAC’s recommendations and broaden community engagement across global scientific communities, including collaboration with other unions and digital data initiatives. Pistoia aims to continue to manage the code base and hosted tools. This presentation will provide an update on the transition planning, and an opportunity for input shaping the long-term vision for the growth and sustainability of HELM and the open-source ecosystem of tools and software that is used by and solves problems for scientists.

IUPAC and The Pistoia Alliance Partner to grow and sustain HELM

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