Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Kurt L Rickard.
We have merged two established anatomical terminologies with an evolving ontology of biological structure: the Foundational Model of Anatomy. We describe the problems we have encountered and the solutions we have developed. We believe that both the problems and solutions generalize to the integration of any legacy terminology with a disciplined ontology within the same domain.
The Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) is a frame-based ontology that represents declarative knowledge about the structural organization of the human body. Part-whole relationships play a particularly important role in this representation. In order to assure that knowledge-based applications relying on the FMA as a resource can reason about anatomy, we have modified and enhanced currently available schemes of meronymic relationships. We have introduced and defined distinct partitions for decomposing anatomical structures and attributed the part relationships in order to eliminate ambiguity and enhance specificity in the richness of meronymic relationships within the FMA.
A logical and principled representation of cell types and their component parts could serve as a framework for correlating the various ontologies that are emerging in bioinformatics with a focus on cells and subcellular biological entities. In order to address this need we have extended the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA)1,2 from macroscopic to cellular and subcellular anatomical entities. The poster will provide a live demonstration of this implementation.