# LipidFun: a database of lipid functions

## TL;DR

LipidFun is a new database that curates and visualizes the functions and roles of lipids in biological processes and diseases.

## Contribution

LipidFun is the first database to provide curated, sentence-level evidence of lipid functions and their associations with phenotypes and biological processes.

## Key findings

- LipidFun uses natural language processing and manual curation to extract lipid-related functions from biomedical literature.
- The database provides visualizations of lipid–phenotype and lipid–biological function associations.
- LipidFun includes classification systems for lipids, functions, and phenotypes to support named entity recognition.

## Abstract

Lipids play crucial roles in various biological functions and diseases. However, a gap exists in databases providing information of lipids functions based on curated information. Consequently, LipidFun is purposed as the first lipid function database with sentence-level evidence detailing lipid-related phenotypes and biological functions.

Potential lipid functions were extracted from the biomedical literature using natural language processing techniques, with accuracy and reliability ensured through manual curation by four domain experts. LipidFun constructs classification systems for lipids, biological functions, and phenotypes for named entity recognition. Sentence-level evidence is extracted to highlight connections to lipid-associated biological processes and diseases. Integrating these classification systems and a large amount of sentence-level evidence allows LipidFun to provide an overview of lipid–phenotype and lipid–biological function associations through concise visualizations. Overall, LipidFun unravels the relationships between lipids and biological mechanisms, underscoring their overarching influence on physiological processes.

LipidFun is available at https://lipidfun.bioinfomics.org/.