Background The data overload has created a new set of challenges in finding meaningful and relevant information with minimal cognitive effort. However designing robust and scalable knowledge discovery systems remains a challenge. Recent innovations in the (biological) literature mining tools have opened new avenues to understand the confluence of various diseases, genes, risk factors as well as biological processes in bridging the gaps between the massive amounts of scientific data and harvesting useful knowledge. Methods In this paper, we highlight some of the findings using a text analytics tool, called ARIANA - Adaptive Robust and Integrative Analysis for finding Novel Associations. Results Empirical study using ARIANA reveals knowledge discovery instances that illustrate the efficacy of such tool. For example, ARIANA can capture the connection between the drug hexamethonium and pulmonary inflammation and fibrosis that caused the tragic death of a healthy volunteer in a 2001 John Hopkins asthma study, even though the abstract of the study was not part of the semantic model. Conclusion An integrated system, such as ARIANA, could assist the human expert in exploratory literature search by bringing forward hidden associations, promoting data reuse and knowledge discovery as well as stimulating interdisciplinary projects by connecting information across the disciplines.