Announcement for Workshop on Synergizing Biomedical Ontologies (July 14-15. Virtual)

[Asiyah Yu Lin]

Dear colleagues,

I hope you will be interested in joining an workshop dedicated to develop tools/APIs for mapping or synergizing biomedical ontologies in ways that fit current modernized technology era.   

Date: July 14-15, 2021 (Virtual)

 Website: https://github.com/OntoloBridge/WSBO

 Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/workshop-on-synergizing-biomedical-ontologies-wsbo-tickets-149242142265

 Abstract submission link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=wsbo2021

  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.

Workshop Co-chairs

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

 Thank you!

On behalf of the workshop organizers:

• Samantha Jeschonek (Collaborative Drug Discovery)
• Aisyah Yu Lin (National Institutes of Health)
• Hande Kucuk McGinty (University of Ohio)