Information retrieval and knowledge discovery utilising a biomedical Semantic Web

Although various ontologies and knowledge sources have been developed in recent years to facilitate biomedical research, it is difficult to assimilate information from multiple knowledge sources. To enable researchers to easily gain understanding of a biomedical concept, a biomedical Semantic Web that seamlessly integrates knowledge from biomedical ontologies, publications and patents would be very helpful. In this paper, current research efforts in representing biomedical knowledge in Semantic Web languages are surveyed. Techniques are presented for information retrieval and knowledge discovery from the Semantic Web that extend traditional keyword search and database querying techniques. Finally, some of the challenges that have to be addressed to make the vision of a biomedical Semantic Web a reality are discussed.