Description:
Life science is the most demanding research field in terms of data quantity and complexity, with many relevant reference databases. To generate knowledge, heterogeneous data from various sources must often be combined. Semantic Web technologies, and in particular RDF and its companion query language SPARQL, provide a common framework allowing data to be shared and reused between resources. Many life science databases have recently turned to RDF to model their data, developed SPARQL endpoints and joined the Linked (Open) Data cloud. This tutorial will introduce neXtProt (www.nextprot.org/), one of the major public knowledge bases on human proteins, its comprehensive RDF data model, and its large collection of reusable example queries, including federated queries to other resources.

At the end of the course, the participants are expected to:
• Describe the neXtProt data model
• Run example queries that answer biological questions
• Search for data by modifying existing SPARQL queries
• Understand how federated queries are constructed

Instructor:
Monique Zahn is the Quality Manager of the CALIPHO group which develops neXtProt. She is responsible for testing user interfaces and the contents of each release. She has established quality control procedures involving SPARQL queries carried out at each data release. She has taught biology in undergraduate degree programs in Switzerland and is also Training Manager at the SIB.