Informatics Software Application Challenges Researchers to "Ask for Knowledge from Data”

New data integration and knowledge software can be applied to visualizing and confirming data-driven hypotheses.

IO Informatics, Inc. (Berkeley, CA, USA), a provider of semantically-enabled life science/healthcare data integration and knowledge software, revealed its new innovative knowledge application, Applied Semantic Knowledgebase (ASK), during a presentation at the recent GTCBio "Rediscovering Biomarkers” Conference, held in San Diego, CA, USA, in August 2009.

Bob Stanley, IO Informatics president and CEO, told the conference attendees, "ASK allows you to move beyond traditional data capture and integration to realize practical value from the knowledge contained in your data. It provides a collection of specific models, built directly from your research, which can be applied to visualizing and validating data-driven hypotheses, as well as for knowledge-based screening and decision-making. ASK gives you a decisive competitive advantage in many areas, such as biomarker-based predictive biology and personalized medicine, including, but not limited to, target profile creation and validation, compound efficacy and promiscuity screening, toxicity profiling and detection, disease signature detection, predictive clinical trials pre-screening, and patient stratification.”

Mr. Stanley went on to clarify how ASK is delivered via the Sentient software suite and is a combination of three of its core technologies: the Sentient software framework for data access and integration; state-of-the-art Semantic methods and applications; and innovative SPARQL array tools. The combination of these technologic capabilities provides researchers with the ability to capture, access, organize, and apply the knowledge contained in their data, in order to solve critical scientific and business challenges.

"Our goal as your partners in discovery,” Mr. Stanley explained, "is to apply our experience and expertise in both software and informatics methods relating to your specific research interests, so that you can obtain and apply the answers you need to solve your complex scientific and related business questions.”

Building on its advanced data access and integration capabilities, Sentient applies semantic patterns to create predictive network models using virtually any combination of internal experimental data and/or external published information. These patterns apply semantic SPARQL query technology to build complex searches across multiple information sets. SPARQL is a new type of semantic search technology capable of detecting patterns within and between different data types and relationships, even if the initial datasets are not formally joined under any common database schema or data federation method.

These patterns or models are then placed in an ASK which is unique to the scientists research focus. The researcher is then able to exploit the knowledge contained within the ASK, by querying the models themselves or by additionally creating new datasets for deeper investigation and analysis. "This transformational technology,” concluded Mr. Stanley, "makes it possible to actively leverage previously disconnected data--creating valuable knowledge that can be used to deliver a revolutionary set of applications for the life-science industry and personalized medicine.”

IOI develops software for data integration and knowledge applications. Its Semantically-enabled Sentient software suite allows life science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical researchers to structure and define complex data relationships across data sources, view these relationships, query them, and capitalize on them--all within a secure, compliant, auditable framework that helps organizations accumulate and utilize knowledge.

Related Links:
IO Informatics