Ontology Creation and Management Tools: the Case of Anatomical Connectivity
This work addresses the challenge for physiology researchers in managing and integrating anatomical connectivity data, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing ontology and knowledge graph methods.
The paper tackles the problem of representing complex physiological systems, specifically the peripheral nervous system, by developing ApiNATOMY, a framework for topological and semantic mapping of multiscale physiological circuits, which integrates a knowledge representation model and management tools to aid researchers in capturing anatomical interactions and converting abstractions into detailed models.
We are developing infrastructure to support researchers in mapping data related to the peripheral nervous system and other physiological systems, with an emphasis on their relevance to the organs under investigation. The nervous system, a complex network of nerves and ganglia, plays a critical role in coordinating and transmitting signals throughout the body. To aid in this, we have created ApiNATOMY, a framework for the topological and semantic representation of multiscale physiological circuit maps. ApiNATOMY integrates a Knowledge Representation (KR) model and a suite of Knowledge Management (KM) tools. The KR model enables physiology experts to easily capture interactions between anatomical entities, while the KM tools help modelers convert high-level abstractions into detailed models of physiological processes, which can be integrated with external ontologies and knowledge graphs.