Combining Semantic Web technologies with Multi-Agent Systems for integrated access to biological resources

The increasing volume and diversity of information in biomedical research is demanding new approaches for data integration in this domain. Semantic Web technologies and applications can leverage the potential of biomedical information integration and discovery, facing the problem of semantic heterogeneity of biomedical information sources. In such an environment, agent technology can assist users in discovering and invoking the services available on the Internet. In this paper we present SEMMAS, an ontology-based, domain-independent framework for seamlessly integrating Intelligent Agents and Semantic Web Services. Our approach is backed with a proof-of-concept implementation where the breakthrough and efficiency of integrating disparate biomedical information sources have been tested.