A 2012 Workshop: Vaccine and Drug Ontology in the Study of Mechanism and Effect (VDOSME 2012)

Vaccines and drugs have contributed to dramatic improvements in public health worldwide. Over the last decade, there have been efforts in developing biomedical ontologies that represent various areas associated with vaccines and drugs. These ontologies combined with existing health and clinical terminology systems (e.g., SNOMED, RxNorm, NDF-RT, MedDRA, VO, OAE, and AERO) could play significant roles on clinical and translational research. The first “Vaccine and Drug Ontology in the Study of Mechanism and Effect” workshop (VDOSME 2012) provided a platform for discussing problems and solutions in the development and application of biomedical ontologies in representing and analyzing vaccines/drugs, vaccine/drug administrations, vaccine/drug-induced immune responses (including positive host responses and adverse events), and similar topics. The workshop covered two main areas: (i) ontologies of vaccines, of drugs, and of studies thereof; and (ii) analysis of administration, mechanism and effect in terms of representations based on such ontologies. Six full-length papers included in this thematic issue focus on ontology representation and time analysis of vaccine/drug administration and host responses (including positive immune responses and adverse events), vaccine and drug adverse event text mining, and ontology-based Semantic Web applications. The workshop, together with the follow-up activities and personal meetings, provided a wonderful platform for the researchers and scientists in the vaccine and drug communities to demonstrate research progresses, share ideas, address questions, and promote collaborations for better representation and analysis of vaccine and drug-related terminologies and clinical and research data.