SWAN (Semantic Web Applications in Neuromedicine) is an interdisciplinary project to develop a practical, common, semantically-structured, framework for biomedical discourse initially applied, but not limited, to significant problems in Alzheimer Disease (AD) research. The ontology of Scientific Discourse Relationships has been developed in the context of building a series of applications for biomedical researchers, as well as extensive discussions and collaborations with the larger bio-ontologies community.