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Data Integration Architectures and Methodology for the Life Sciences

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Definition

Given a set of data sources, data integration is the process of creating an integrated resource combining data from the data sources, in order to allow queries and analyses that could not be supported by the individual data sources alone. Biological data sources are characterized by their high degree of heterogeneity, in terms of their data model, query interfaces and query processing capabilities, data types used, and nomenclature adopted for actual data values. Coupled with the variety, complexity and volumes of biological data available, the integration of biological data sources poses many challenges, and a number of methodologies, architectures and systems have been developed to support it.

Historical Background

If an application requires data from different data sources to be integrated in order to support users' queries and analyses, one possible solution is for the required data transformation and aggregation functionality to be encoded into the application's...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of London, London, UK

    Alexandra Poulovassilis

Authors
  1. Alexandra Poulovassilis
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alexandra Poulovassilis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Louiqa Raschid

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Poulovassilis, A. (2018). Data Integration Architectures and Methodology for the Life Sciences. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_625

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