Ontology

Ontology is a controlled and standardized vocabulary with certain kind of reasoning power. It is formulated using a formal language called Web Ontology Language (OWL). Biological data are widely dispersed and they sometimes use different formats for representation. This makes finding and sharing biological data very difficult. If all thesse data and information are stored using a standard method, then people can share their data and information with rest of the world as NIH now mendates. Ontology provides such platform. It stores all the information using standardized language, OWL.

Reference:

1) NCBO