Anatomy Workshop

Anatomy Workshop:

As part of the ongoing SOFG efforts to integrate anatomy ontologies of mouse and human, a small workshop is planned for early 2004. The workshop is intended to complement an Anatomy Case Study which will look at a "vertical slice" through the target ontologies (listed on the Anatomy Case Study web page). The workshop aims at integrating mouse and human anatomy at a broad, but high and relatively shallow level of the ontologies (a "horizontal slice"). More specifically, the workshop objectives are:

• to reach agreement on the top-most layers of a common anatomy ontology for mouse and human, covering both: embryo development and adult;
• within this ontology, to define anatomical concepts at a level that will result in tissue definitions which are semantically equivalent in mouse and human;
• to determine to what depth such a common anatomy ontology can usefully be developed;

The resulting ontology should be sufficiently comprehensive to support applications in the area of microarray research. Microarray research was chosen as the initial target application, because:

• the requirements are simple enough to provide an achievable goal within the workshop, and
• there is an immediate need for such an ontology in this area;

Although the workshop will be by invitation only (primarily bringing together a small number of representatives of the target ontologies), it is intended only as a first step towards a wider effort by the whole community to drive forward the creation of such a common human/mouse ontology. The results of the workshop will be made publicly available on this site for further discussions by the entire community.

The workshop is hosted by the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, co-organised by Duncan Davidson, Jonathan Bard and Albert Burger. For more information, comments and questions, please contact Albert Burger.