Bioontologies

Bioontologies are vocabularies of terms used to describe the characteristics of a biological system. As a set of controlled vocabularies, they provide the basis to classify, store, and share data across different domains. Bioontologies are used in bioinformatics to represent the data included in large datasets, such as the proteins, genes and metabolites in a biological system. They are also used in predictive and descriptive modelling of biological systems. Furthermore, bioontologies enable integration of multiple data sources by integrating multiple vocabularies, which allow data to be linked across different databases. By using bioontologies, new insights into the relationships between organisms and the environment can be gained, and information sharing between research groups is facilitated.