Huajun [EMAIL PROTECTED] University wrote: > Another challenge is cross-language data integration, which is actually a > job that ontology should do. > I honestly disagree. Ontology is about the semantics of *being* but that of symbols. It doesn't matter if how "gene" is called, named, or written. It symbolize the same objective entities. A URI such as http://www.example.com is not written in English. It is just a bunch of symbols. Let's not introduce linguistic issues into data integration, which already have a lot of issues.
Xiaoshu Wang > Best wishes, huajun > > -----邮件原件----- > 发件人: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 代表 Matthias Samwald > 发送时间: 2008年5月26日 21:22 > 收件人: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Tim Clark > 抄送: M. Scott Marshall; public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org > 主题: Re: KB note > > > >> Speaking of national boundaries, I wonder if alternative medicine (e.g., >> herbal >> medicine) would also be of interest to this community. For example, >> Huperzine >> is a drug derived from the herb Huperzia serrata. I also wonder if there >> are >> hypotheses regarding the study of herbs in the possible treatment of >> neurological diseases. >> > > I would also be very motivated to help in this kind of research. > Specifically, Huperzine A would be a very interesting use-case for our > developments. It is a herbal compound with a history in folk medicine and is > > available OTC in most countries, yet it rivals the effectiveness of > currently leading Alzheimer medications such as Tacrine. It also has a dual > mode of action that does not only involve acetylcholinesterase inhibition, > but also modulation of the NMDA receptor. The implications of this for the > treatment of Alzheimer's are still a rather hot topic. > > The integration of knowledge from traditional medicine, plant > taxonomy/phylogeny/biochemistry and receptor binding databases (PDSP Ki > database, IUPHAR) could lead to the identification of some extremely novel > therapeutic strategies. Finding candidate molecules in such a way might be > much more effective than weeding through libraries of compounds generated by > > combinatorial synthesis etc. The challenge lies in the integration of some > very heterogenous datasets that come from vastly different disciplines, > which is exactly the field of research where Semantic Web technologies are > most effective. > > I guess the major problem for this kind of research is that there are no > funding programmes that span China, the US and Asia... > > Cheers, > Matthias Samwald > > DERI Galway, Ireland // Semantic Web Company, Austria > http://www.deri.ie/ > http://www.semantic-web.at/ > > > > > >