Information extraction technology, as defined and developed through the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Message Understanding Conferences (MUCs), has proved successful at extracting information primarily from newswire texts and primarily in domains concerned with human activity. In this paper, the application of this technology to the extraction of information from scientific journal papers in the area of molecular biology is considered. In particular, it is described how an information extraction designed to participate in the MUC exercises has been modified for two bioinformatics applications: one concerned with enzyme and metabolic pathways; the other with protein structure. Progress to date provides convincing grounds for believing that information extraction techniques will deliver novel and effective ways for scientists to make use of the core literature which defines their disciplines.
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