Recent trends in knowledge and data integration for the life sciences

The bioscience field has seen some spectacular advances in genomic and proteomic technologies that are able to deliver vast quantities of information on cellular activity. Such technologies are of critical importance to biology, medical science and in drug discovery. However, living systems are highly complex and to fully exploit these technologies requires knowledge at many different levels. Information such as genome sequence data, gene expression data, protein-to-protein interactions and metabolic pathways is required to understand the complexity of biological processes. The challenge for bioinformatics is to tackle the problem of fragmentation of knowledge by integrating the many sources of heterogeneous information into a coherent entity. Another problem is that the high level of biological complexity and the fragmented nature of biological research has meant that it is difficult to keep fully conversant with the latest research and discoveries. Progress in one area of biology may have implications for other areas but the dissemination of this knowledge is not straightforward; difficulties such as differences in naming conventions for genes and biological processes has led to confusion and the lack of productivity. This paper reviews the most recent research to overcome the fragmentation problem where technologies such as text mining and ontologies are used within the knowledge discovery process and the specific technical challenges they address.

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