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Representing the NCI Thesaurus in OWL DL: Modeling tools help modeling languages
Natalya F Noy1, Sherri de Coronado, Harold Solbrig
1Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, United States, noy@stanford.edu , musen@stanford.edu.
Applied Ontology
|September 28, 2011
Summary
Researchers explored using Web Ontology Language (OWL DL) to represent the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Thesaurus, finding it sufficient in some areas but lacking expressiveness in others for biomedical ontologies.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Informatics
- Ontology Engineering
- Knowledge Representation
Background:
- The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Thesaurus is a critical biomedical reference ontology.
- Currently, it is represented using Ontylog, a Description Logic implementation.
- There is a need to evaluate alternative representation languages for enhanced functionality and standardization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the feasibility of using Web Ontology Language (OWL DL) for representing the NCI Thesaurus.
- To assess the suitability of OWL DL against the knowledge representation requirements of the NCI Thesaurus.
- To identify limitations and necessary improvements in OWL DL for complex biomedical ontologies.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of NCI Thesaurus knowledge representation requirements.
- Evaluation of OWL DL's expressiveness and capabilities using Protégé-OWL.
- Comparative study of Ontylog and OWL DL for ontology representation.
Main Results:
- OWL DL adequately represents some components of the NCI Thesaurus.
- Specific areas require additional tool support to manage complexity.
- Certain representation requirements exceed the current expressiveness of OWL DL.
Conclusions:
- OWL DL shows promise for representing biomedical ontologies like the NCI Thesaurus.
- Addressing expressiveness gaps and enhancing tool support are crucial for broader adoption.
- The findings offer valuable insights for representing other biomedical terminologies and ontologies.
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