What is obo?

OBO, which can stand for several things depending on the context, most commonly refers to the Open Biomedical Ontologies.

• Open Biomedical Ontologies (OBO): This is a suite of orthogonally designed, interoperable ontologies in the biomedical domain. The OBO Foundry sets the principles and provides guidelines for creating and maintaining ontologies that are compatible and mutually consistent. Key principles include being open and available, using a common syntax, having clearly defined scopes, and documenting terms with precise definitions. The goal of OBO is to facilitate data integration and knowledge discovery in biology and medicine. The OBO Foundry is central to this effort.

  • Ontologies: Ontologies are formal representations of knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. In the OBO context, these concepts are biological entities like genes, proteins, cell types, and diseases.

  • Interoperability: A crucial aspect is interoperability, ensuring different ontologies can be used together seamlessly. This is achieved through shared standards and careful coordination.

  • Data Integration: OBO ontologies are vital for data%20integration, allowing researchers to combine and analyze data from diverse sources using a common vocabulary.

  • Examples: Well-known OBO ontologies include the Gene Ontology (GO), the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO), and the Cell Ontology (CL).