Amit Sheth, Kno.e.sis Center, Wright State University

This research project's objectives are to develop and deploy a novel, ontology-driven, semantic problem-solving environment (semantic PSE) for Trypanosoma cruzi. The semantic PSE will support dynamic integration of local and public data to answer biological questions at multiple levels of granularity. It will utilize semantic technologies for effective querying of multiple databases, as well as feature an intuitive and comprehensive set of interfaces for usability and easy adoption by biologists.

Included in the multimodal datasets will be:

• the genomic data and the associated bioinformatics predictions
• functional information from metabolic pathways
• experimental data from mass spectrometry and microarray experiments
• and textual information from Pubmed

Researchers will be able to use and contribute to a rigorously curated T.cruzi knowledge base that will make it reusable and extensible. The resources developed as part of this project will be also useful to those researching T.cruzi related kinetoplastids, Trypanosoma brucei and Leishmania major (among other pathogenic organisms), which use similar research protocols and face similar informatics challenges.

Architecture Overview of the Semantic PSE

Collaborating partners:

• Rick Tarleton, The Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases, University of Georgia, and
  Prashant Doshi, Department of Computer Science, University of Georgia
• Mark Musen and Natasha Noy, NCBO at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research