Scientific competency questions as the basis for semantically enriched open pharmacological space development
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Updated: May 11, 2026

Evidence-based Knowledge Synthesis and Hypothesis Validation: Navigating Biomedical Knowledge Bases via Explainable AI and Agentic Systems
Published on: June 13, 2025
Kamal Azzaoui1, Edgar Jacoby, Stefan Senger
1Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, Forum 1 Novartis Campus, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Molecular information systems play an important part in modern data-driven drug discovery. They do not only support decision making but also enable new discoveries via association and inference. In this review, we outline the scientific requirements identified by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Open PHACTS consortium for the design of an open pharmacological space (OPS) information system. The focus of this work is the integration of compound-target-pathway-disease/phenotype data for public and industrial drug discovery research. Typical scientific competency questions provided by the consortium members will be analyzed based on the underlying data concepts and associations needed to answer the questions. Publicly available data sources used to target these questions as well as the need for and potential of semantic web-based technology will be presented.
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