WSBO-2021: Workshop on Synergizing Biomedical Ontologies

Ontologies are standardized, formal vocabularies developed by domain experts, typically in collaboration with ontologists. In the era of big data and AI, they enable finding, accessing, interoperating and reusing datasets and other digital research objects, in other words, making data F.A.I.R. As more communities develop ontologies to meet their specific needs, it is critical that we maintain synergy with existing ontologies, especially reference ontologies. Similar, but unreferenced terms create ambiguities that complicate implementation of the very F.A.I.R. principles ontologies seek to support. The biomedical field is especially rich with similar ontologies, including BAO and OBI, MONDO and DOID, DTO and PR, CLO and BRENDA, UBERON and FMA, and others. Extensive mapping efforts are often required to maintain associations between these ontologies, making integration expensive and cumbersome. No formal process has been established for collaboratively converging and actively maintaining synergy between ontologies. The goal of this meeting is to stimulate conversation around the best practices for synergizing ontologies, with an emphasis on collaborative development and dynamic workflows.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome submissions of abstracts of 300 words or less for oral presentations and tool demos. The following paper categories are welcome:

• Developing and maintaining biomedical ontologies
• End-user interaction with ontologies
• Ontology mapping
• Tools, technologies, and repositories supporting ontologies

Committees

Workshop Charis

• Stephan Schürer (University of Miami)
• Mark Musen (Stanford University)

Organizing committee

• Samantha Jeschonek (Collaborative Drug Discovery)
• Aisyah Yu Lin (FDA, National Center for Ontological Research)
• Hande Kucuk McGinty (University of Ohio)

Venue

This is a virtual workshop. Invitations will be sent to those who registered for the workshop.

Contact

All questions about submissions should be emailed to sschurer@med.miami.edu or samantha@collaborativedrug.com