Ontology-based integration of biomedical databases

This paper presents a novel approach for biomedical database integration, called ONTOFUSION, based on agents and ontologies. It uses domain ontologies to overcome structural and terminological differences among databases or information sources. There are two basic processes within ONTOFUSION: mapping and unification. Mapping is a semiautomated process that uses ontologies to link a database schema with a conceptual framework ―named virtual schema. There are three methodologies for creating virtual schemas, according to the origin of the domain ontology used: (1) top-down, (2) bottom-up and (3) a hybrid combination. Unification is an automated process to integrate the virtual schemas linked to databases. A comparison with other previous systems shows two new features of ONTOFUSION: virtual schema unification and physical schema redesign