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Application of Ontologies in Bioinformatics

In: Handbook on Ontologies

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Stevens

    (University of Manchester)

  • Phillip Lord

    (Newcastle University)

Abstract

Summary The use of ontologies has become a mainstream activity within bioinformatics. In a largely descriptive science such as biology, the need to have a common understanding of things described is obvious. The need to be able to apply computational methods to the large quantities of data being produced also suggests a computational requirement to standardise descriptions in biology. As a mechanism for describing the categories of entities and their characteristics, ontologies offer many of the features that can support a descriptive science. The main use of ontologies in bioinformatics has been the delivery of controlled vocabularies. In this chapter we explore this use of ontology, but also other uses, especially those that have a deeper computational aspect. We take a broad view of ontology to include many ontology-like resources and classify the uses of ontology and ontology-like artifacts. We present a series of case studies and conclude by describing the current state and future directions for bio-ontologies.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Stevens & Phillip Lord, 2009. "Application of Ontologies in Bioinformatics," International Handbooks on Information Systems, in: Steffen Staab & Rudi Studer (ed.), Handbook on Ontologies, pages 735-756, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:ihichp:978-3-540-92673-3_33
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-92673-3_33
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