SMART: A Web-Based, Ontology-Driven, Semantic Web Query Answering Application

SMART (Semantic web information Management with automated Reasoning Tool) is an open-source project, which aims to provide intuitive tools for life scientists for represent, integrate, manage and query heterogeneous and distributed biological knowledge. SMART was designed with interoperability and extensibility in mind and uses AJAX, SVG and JSF technologies, RDF, OWL, SPARQL semantic web languages, triple stores (i.e. Jena) and DL reasoners (i.e. Pellet) for the automated reasoning. Features include semantic query composition and validation using DL reasoners, a graphical representation of the query, a mapping of DL queries to SPARQL, and the retrieval of pre-computed inferences from an RDF triple store. With a use case scenario, we illustrate how a biological scientist can intuitively query the yeast knowledge base and navigate the results. Continued development of this web-based resource for the biological semantic web will enable new information retrieval opportunities for the life sciences.