Nowadays, omics data analysis that integrates semantics in the form of external prior knowledge with raw measurements is becoming more and more popular in computational biology [1–3]. A typical example of integrative gene expression data analysis may deliver a direct link between a phenotype and existing annotation terms at different levels of generality. The integration helps scientists to interpret gene expression data easier because it can reveal gene sets that share common biological properties. Semantic data are stored in databases, oftentimes in an ontology format. In this area, an important role is played by The Open Biological and Biomedical Ontology (OBO) Foundry [4], which provides validation and assessment of ontologies to ensure their interoperability. Dozens of ontologies from various biological domains can be downloaded from http://www.obofoundry.org/.
展开▼
