Ontologies and Standards
Issues/Needs/Problems Addressed
- The field of neuroinformatics requires ontologies/terminologies that can work together in an integrated fashion.
- The field needs guidance and education in the creation and use of ontologies/terminologies.
- Existing biomedical ontologies/terminologies need to be reviewed for relevance to the neurosciences.
- HBP groups should work together to explore how best to link existing resources.
- The field should work towards a more global ontology/metathesaurus that will promote interoperation among HBP databases and tools.
Activities for the Coming Year
- An informational Web site
- A pilot collaboration focused on the Cerebellum
- ASTYNAX: A pilot exploration of Semantic Web technology
- An Informational Web Site
Create an informational Web site designed to help guide, facilitate, and educate HBP researchers interested in building and/or using ontologies, including: - a definition of an ontology, optional complexities, FAQs, references, examples, and guidelines;
- pointers to other major ontology efforts, e.g., Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO), Gene Ontology, et cetera;
- tools that are particularly useful for creating/using ontologies;
- tools tailored to the needs of different audiences.
- A Pilot Collaboration Focused on the Cerebellum
This pilot project will include: - BAMS — Mihail Bota (USC)
- BrainInfo — Douglas Bowden (UW)
- ASTYNAX: A Pilot Exploration of Semantic Web Technology
- Pilot representation of a different HBP database/knowledge bases using RDF/OWL
- Initial DBs will include: CCDB, SenseLab, WebQTL, BrainInfo, BAMS, and others
- Develop a range of use cases
- This will provide a testbed for a spectrum of interesting neuroinformatics research projects
