Modelling kidney disease using ontology: insights from the Kidney Precision Medicine Project

Edison Ong1, Lucy L Wang2, Jennifer Schaub3

  • 1Department of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Nature Reviews. Nephrology
|September 17, 2020
PubMed

Insights

New ontologies will help organize kidney disease data for precision medicine. This advances understanding and treatment by mapping kidney molecular, cellular, and anatomical features.

Area of Science:

  • Nephrology
  • Bioinformatics
  • Genomics

Background:

  • Kidney disease requires better stratification based on pathophysiology for targeted therapies.
  • Precision medicine initiatives collect diverse patient data for improved understanding.
  • Ontologies are essential for organizing and integrating complex biomedical data.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop ontologies for organizing kidney disease data.
  • To support the creation of a comprehensive Kidney Tissue Atlas.
  • To enable precise phenotyping for kidney precision medicine.

Main Methods:

  • Development of the Kidney Tissue Atlas Ontology.
  • Development of the Ontology of Precision Medicine and Investigation.
  • Integration of clinical, biological, and imaging data.

Main Results:

  • Two new ontologies have been created to support kidney research.
  • These ontologies facilitate data annotation and integration.
  • The Kidney Tissue Atlas will provide a detailed map of kidney structures.

Conclusions:

  • Ontologies are critical for advancing kidney precision medicine.
  • Improved data organization will lead to new definitions of kidney disease.
  • This work supports the development of more effective kidney disease therapeutics.

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