Searching biotechnology information: A case study

The elaboration of strategies for the effective search of biotechnology information is a challenging task. In fact, the large amount of data in the public domain on biotechnology products and technologies is scattered among many databases and provided in different formats of document. This situation can make particularly difficult the identification, the extraction, and the aggregation of the information that are needed for performing detailed patent or scientific analyses. The article presents a case study presenting different text-based approaches for searching and analyzing biotechnology information in patent and scientific literature using a series of exemplary searches on antibodies, a class of biological products having broad scientific and commercial interest. The results show the complexity of defining how biotechnology information is actually searchable through the variety of available resources and to what extent. Some major factors that should be taken into consideration when searches are performed for evaluating scientific/patent trends, selecting documents potentially relevant for patentability, or identifying valuable technical information.

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