Recent applications of web semantics in eLifeScience

Originating as heavily descriptive sciences, biology and biomedicine have a long tradition of specialized terminologies, classification systems, and controlled vocabularies. Therefore, we should not be surprised at the enthusiasm with which bioand bio-medical informaticians have developed and made use of semantic technologies (e.g. see [1, 2]). Ontologies have a natural use in the domain. The National Center for Biomedical Ontology (http://bioportal.bioontology.org) now provides access to over 400 ontologies with over 6 million classes [3, 4].