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Life & fun · March 9, 2012

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(Our startup) DistilBio, a search engine for life sciences data

Link: http://www.distilbio.com DistilBio lets you look up detailed information on drugs, diseases, proteins etc. You can ask questions like "Find drugs which interact with Tylenol, and proteins which are targeted by these drugs", or build more complex queries if you like. While it is targeted at scientists in the life sciences field, we've found that many people like finding out more about drugs they're using, diseases they know about etc. We're continuing to add more data and make it more useful for the layman too. We thought we'd like to show our app to HN users and solicit feedback before…

(Our startup) DistilBio, a search engine for life sciences data launched on March 9, 2012 with 14 votes, #71 of 340 launches that month and more than 75% of that year's launches.

Visit distilbio.com ↗Alternativestop 21% of March 2012

In plain words

DistilBio is a search engine for life sciences data that lets users look up information on drugs, diseases, and proteins. Users can perform simple lookups or build complex queries, such as finding drugs that interact with specific medications and their protein targets. Designed primarily for life sciences researchers, the platform also serves general users interested in learning about drugs they use or diseases they encounter. The service continues expanding its data coverage and improving accessibility for non-specialist audiences.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

Link: http://www.distilbio.com DistilBio lets you look up detailed information on drugs, diseases, proteins etc. You can ask questions like "Find drugs which interact with Tylenol, and proteins which are targeted by these drugs", or build more complex queries if you like. While it is targeted at scientists in the…

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