BioAssay Ontology

Last uploaded: May 6, 2026

Details

Acronym	BAO
Visibility	Public
Description	The BioAssay Ontology (BAO) describes chemical biology screening assays and their results including high-throughput screening (HTS) data for the purpose of categorizing assays and data analysis. BAO is an extensible, knowledge-based, highly expressive (currently SHOIQ(D)) description of biological assays making use of descriptive logic based features of the Web Ontology Language (OWL). BAO currently has over 1000 classes and also makes use of several other ontologies. It describes several concepts related to biological screening, including Perturbagen, Format, Meta Target, Design, Detection Technology, and Endpoint. Perturbagens are perturbing agents that are screened in an assay; they are mostly small molecules. Assay Meta Target describes what is known about the biological system and / or its components interrogated in the assay (and influenced by the Perturbagen). Meta target can be directly described as a molecular entity (e.g. a purified protein or a protein complex), or indirectly by a biological process or event (e.g. phosphorylation). Format describes the biological or chemical features common to each test condition in the assay and includes biochemical, cell-based, organism-based, and variations thereof. The assay Design describes the assay methodology and implementation of how the perturbation of the biological system is translated into a detectable signal. Detection Technology relates to the physical method and technical details to detect and record a signal. Endpoints are the final HTS results as they are usually published (such as IC50, percent inhibition, etc.). BAO has been designed to accommodate multiplexed assays. All main BAO components include multiple levels of sub-categories and specification classes, which are linked via object property relationships forming an expressive knowledge-based representation.
Status	Production
Format	OWL
Categories	Protein Chemical Other Biological Process Molecule Vocabularies Cell Physicochemical Subcellular
License Information	This ontology is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC by SA4) license.

Bibliographic reference	http://www.bioassayontology.org/ http://www.bioassayontology.org/
Contact	Caty Chung ([email protected]) Stephan Schurer ([email protected])
Creation date	May 6, 2026
Deprecated	false See more...
Documentation	http://www.bioassayontology.org/ See more...
Imports	http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_result.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_result.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_function.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_function.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_detection.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_detection.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_unit.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_unit.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_CHEBI_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_CHEBI_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_organization.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_organization.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_screenedentity.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_screenedentity.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/bao_UO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/bao_UO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_role.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_role.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_quality.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_quality.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_module_vocabularies.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_module_vocabularies.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_ro.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_ro.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_core.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_core.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_UBERON_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_UBERON_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_materialentity.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_materialentity.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_computational.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_computational.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_module_properties.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_module_properties.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_EFO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_EFO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_metadata.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_metadata.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao+external.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao+external.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_software.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_software.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_module_biology.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_module_biology.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_PATO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_PATO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_ERO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_ERO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_assaykit.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_assaykit.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_method.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_method.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_people.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_people.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_NCIT_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_NCIT_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_assay.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_assay.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_NCBITaxon_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_NCBITaxon_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_DOID_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_DOID_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_properties.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_properties.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_instrument.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_instrument.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_biology.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_biology.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_CLO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_CLO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_phenotype.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_phenotype.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_format.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_vocabulary_format.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_GO_import.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/external/BAO_GO_import.owl
Modification date	June 26, 2025
Notes	Created by: Caty Chung, Nicolette Ross, Joan Glenny-Pescov, Jiaming Hu, Stephan Schurer* See more... Created by: Caty Chung, Nicolette Ross, Joan Glenny-Pescov, Jiaming Hu, Stephan Schurer* See more... Contact: Contact: Stephan Schurer stephan dot schurer at med dot miami dot edu See more... Contact: Stephan Schurer stephan dot schurer at med dot miami dot edu See more...
Object creation date property	http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/created http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/created
Object modification date property	http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/modified http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/modified
Subject	https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Protein See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Chemical See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Other See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Biological_Process See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Molecule See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Vocabularies See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Cell See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Physicochemical See more... https://data.bioontology.org/categories/Subcellular See more...
Submission date	May 6, 2026
Version information	2.8.19 See more...
uri	http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_complete.owl http://www.bioassayontology.org/bao/bao_complete.owl

Version	Released	Uploaded	Downloads
2.8.19 (Parsed, Indexed, Metrics)	05/06/2026	05/06/2026	OWL \| CSV \| RDF/XML \| Diff
2.8.18a (Archived)	10/07/2025	10/07/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.18 (Archived)	10/05/2025	10/05/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.17 (Archived)	10/02/2025	10/02/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.16 (Archived)	07/02/2025	07/02/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.16 (Uploaded)	07/01/2025	07/01/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.16 (Archived)	07/01/2025	07/01/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.15 (Archived)	07/01/2025	07/01/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.15 (Parsed, Indexed, Metrics, Annotator)	05/30/2025	05/30/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.14 (Archived)	04/08/2025	04/08/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.13 (Archived)	03/20/2025	03/20/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.12 (Archived)	01/17/2025	01/17/2025	OWL \| Diff
2.8.11 (Archived)	02/21/2024	02/21/2024	OWL \| Diff
2.8.10 (Archived)	10/20/2023	10/20/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.9 (Archived)	10/09/2023	10/09/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.8 (Archived)	09/08/2023	09/08/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.7 (Archived)	08/22/2023	08/22/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.6 (Archived)	06/29/2023	06/29/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.5 (Archived)	06/28/2023	06/28/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.4 (Archived)	06/13/2023	06/13/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.3 (Archived)	06/08/2023	06/08/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.2 (Archived)	05/12/2023	05/12/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8.1 (Archived)	05/05/2023	05/05/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.8 (Archived)	04/28/2023	04/28/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.7.5 (Archived)	03/09/2023	03/09/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.7.4 (Archived)	01/31/2023	01/31/2023	OWL \| Diff
2.7.3 (Archived)	10/27/2022	10/27/2022	OWL \| Diff
2.7.2 (Archived)	07/08/2021	07/08/2021	OWL \| Diff
2.7.1 (Archived)	06/03/2021	06/03/2021	OWL \| Diff
2.7 (Archived)	12/15/2020	12/15/2020	OWL \| Diff
2.6.1 (Archived)	10/16/2020	10/16/2020	OWL \| Diff
2.6 (Archived)	07/31/2020	07/31/2020	OWL \| Diff
2.5.2 (Archived)	02/03/2020	02/03/2020	OWL \| Diff
2.5.1 (Archived)	10/07/2019	10/07/2019	OWL \| Diff
2.5 (Archived)	05/17/2019	05/17/2019	OWL \| Diff
2.4 (Archived)	03/05/2018	03/05/2018	OWL \| Diff
2.3.3 (Archived)	10/04/2017	10/04/2017	OWL \| Diff
2.3.2 (Archived)	09/27/2017	09/27/2017	OWL \| Diff
2.3.1 (Archived)	09/26/2017	09/26/2017	OWL \| Diff
2.3.1 (Archived)	02/10/2017	02/10/2017	OWL \| Diff
2.2.2 (Archived)	01/27/2017	01/27/2017	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	12/16/2016	12/16/2016	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	10/20/2015	10/20/2015	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	11/18/2014	11/18/2014	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	11/13/2014	11/13/2014	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	11/05/2014	11/05/2014	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	04/25/2014	11/01/2014	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	04/25/2014	11/01/2014	OWL \| Diff
2.0 (Archived)	04/25/2014	04/25/2014	OWL \| Diff
2 (Archived)	01/29/2014	02/04/2014	OWL \| Diff
2 (Archived)	01/29/2014	01/29/2014	OWL \| Diff
2 (Archived)	11/19/2013	11/19/2013	OWL \| Diff
2 (Archived)	08/30/2013	08/30/2013	OWL \| Diff
1.6.2 (Archived)	12/11/2012	12/12/2012	OWL \| Diff
1.6 (Archived)	04/06/2012	04/12/2012	OWL \| Diff
1.5 (Archived)	11/25/2011	11/25/2011	OWL
1.4 (Archived)	10/08/2011	10/08/2011	OWL
1.3 (Archived)	06/30/2011	07/13/2011	OWL
1.2 (Archived)	04/29/2011	07/06/2011	OWL
1.1 (Archived)	04/29/2011	05/09/2011	OWL
1 (Archived)	03/22/2011	03/22/2011	OWL
0.9.461 (Archived)	09/17/2010	09/23/2010	OWL
more...

No views of BAO available

Classes	7,918
Individuals	1
Properties	228
Maximum depth	3
Maximum number of children	189
Average number of children	4
Classes with a single child	775
Classes with more than 25 children	35
Classes with no definition	2,411

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