# Presentation: 168181

## LexBIO – Shared Vocabulary Resources

**LexBIO – Shared Vocabulary Resources**
- J.D. Buntrock, H.R. Solbrig,T.M. Johnson, C.G. Chute MD, DrPH

- Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Division of Biomedical Informatics, Rochester, MN

- Parts of this project are supported by the following NLM grants:
- R01LM07319
- R01LM0745-3-01, Harris (PI)

_**Content**_
- LexGrid defines a common information model for representing terminology content.  A portion of this model is depicted in figure (3).
- The model provides an abstraction capable of supporting a wide variety of disparate terminologies. For inclusion, terminologies undergo conversion from native to LexGrid format.  As of today conversions exist for several formats including the OBO ontologies and NCI Thesaurus (OWL) (4).
- Several technology-specific schemas exist in fulfillment of the abstract LexGrid model including XML, relational database (MySql, Postgres, DB2, Oracle) and LDAP (5).  Once converted to a compatible format, terminologies are readily converted to other formats via LexGrid tooling (6) and made available for consumption by LexGrid-aware runtime services (7).  Compatible APIs for NCBO activities include LexGrid Vocabulary Services for caBIG (LexBIG) and Health Level Seven Common Terminology Services (HL7-CTS).

_**Tools**_
- By providing a standard model and well-defined service layers, LexGrid facilitates data inter-operability while simplifying and clarifying the design and functionality of related tools.
- Several tools are currently offered in a pre-production capacity, including the following:
-  The LexGrid Editor (13) provides the ability to author, view, maintain, extend, and validate content,    as well as the capacity to visualize relations and search networked terminologies.
-  Protégé plug-ins, e.g. OBO Import (14), support access of LexGrid resources within a formal       ontology management environment.
-  Integration of LexGrid services and content into standard desktop applications such as MicrosoftTM   Excel (15).
-  The CTS Explorer provides ubiquitous connectivity and browsing capabilities to LexGrid content,   regardless of access path or repository format.
-  Additional tooling information is available at _[http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid](http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid)_

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_**Introduction**_
- The Lexical Grid (LexGrid) represents a comprehensive set of software and services to load, publish, and access vocabulary or ontological resources.  LexGrid provides a framework that:
-  Utilizes a single information model
-  Provides standardized programming interfaces and tools to  load and index content
-  Provides architectural consistency and cohesion required to support large-scale adoption  and use
-  Leverages vocabulary standards specifications
_**LexBIO**_
- LexBIO represents software development for supporting NCBO and is a core component of the system architecture (1). The LexBIO implementation shares a technology base with existing LexGrid applications, repositories, and model architecture.  Specific extensions include the ability to import resources defined to the open biomedical ontologies (OBO), Web Ontology Language (OWL), and Protégé Frame formats.  The LexBIO service can host and administrate multiple ontologies and versions of ontologies.
- LexBIO with the BioPortal (2)  provide the basis for Core 1 and Core 2 NCBO activities used for managing and governing biomedical ontologies.
- For more information:  _[http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid/index.php?page=lexbio](http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid/index.php?page=lexbio)_

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- Parts of this project are supported by the following NIH/NLM grants:
-  R01 LM07319-03 (NCE)
-  R01 LM0745-3-01
-  VCDE-17-02-01
-  U54 HG004028

_**Standards**_
- LexGrid is based on existing and emerging standards for modeling, representation, and communication.
-  The LexGrid terminology model is mastered in XML Schema (8) and readily represented by other modeling technologies.  This includes generic representations such as UML as well as    more targeted representations such as the XMI-based Eclipse Modeling Framework, or EMF (9).  EMF provides development and runtime support to render a canonical version of the    model as Java objects (_[http://www.eclipse.org/emf](http://www.eclipse.org/emf)__)._
-  LexGrid adheres to relevant messaging standards such as the HL7 Common Terminology Services specification (12) combined with industry-standard communications protocols such as    the Simple Object Access Protocol, or SOAP (10).
-  LexGrid utilizes standard file formats such as XML and common storage back-ends such as relational database and LDAP repositories (11).

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- LexGrid Components

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