ICBO_2018_28: KTAO: A kidney tissue atlas ontology to support community-based kidney knowledge base development and data integration

<p>Human kidney has its complex structure and diverse interactions among its cells during homeostasis and in its diseased states. To systematically classify, represent, and integrate kidney gene activity, cell types, cell states, and interstitial components, we developed a Kidney Tissue Atlas Ontology (KTAO). KTAO reuses and aligns with existing ontologies such as the Cell Ontology, UBERON, and Human Phenotype Ontology. KTAO also generates new semantic axioms to logically link terms of entities in different domains. As a first study, KTAO represents over 200 known kidney gene markers and their profiles in different cell types in kidney patients. Such a representation supports kidney knowledge base generation, query, and data integration.</p>