DisMech Documentation

Welcome to the documentation for DisMech, the Disorder Mechanisms Knowledge Base — a structured, evidence-backed knowledge base of disease pathophysiology.

This site covers the curation guides, the conceptual explanations, the data model, and the auto-generated schema reference. For the live knowledge base itself, head to the main site.

AI-curated resource — not medical advice

DisMech content is generated and maintained by AI curation agents under human review, from publicly accessible literature and curated biomedical knowledge resources. It is a research resource and is not intended to inform medical diagnosis or treatment. See the full disclaimer.

Start here

• New to the data model? Read the Data Model overview — a curated map of the key schema classes.
• Curating an entry? Start with the Curation Primers and the How-to Guides.
• Need exact schema details? See the full Schema Reference.

Curation Primers

Short, visual guides to the modeling patterns you'll use most:

• Phenotype Association Context — scoped phenotype assertions; OMIM-like vs Orphanet-like sources; phenotype_contexts vs has_subtypes.
• Preferred Term vs Ontology Label — the two-field display/ontology contract and when to diverge.
• Modules & Conformance — conforms_to as consistency checking, not inheritance.

For the deeper conceptual background, see Contextualization and Post-composition Terms.

The main site

• dismech.monarchinitiative.org — project home
• Disorder browser — browse the knowledge base
• Detailed docs — how a disorder page is built
• GitHub repository

Related browsers

• Curation history dashboard — explore curation, review, and audit activity by date, agent tool, model, and section, with links to the original history records.
• Monarch NAMs browser — explore New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and research datasets represented in DisMech, with filters for model type, disease, organism, tissue, and more.

Both browsers are generated from DisMech and refresh daily through GitHub Actions.