Cerebral: Visualizing Multiple Experimental Conditions on a Graph with Biological Context

Systems biologists use interaction graphs to model the behavior of biological systems at the molecular level. In an iterative process, such biologists observe the reactions of living cells under various experimental conditions, view the results in the context of the interaction graph, and then propose changes to the graph model. These graphs serve as a form of dynamic knowledge representation of the biological system being studied and evolve as new insight is gained from the experimental data. While numerous graph layout and drawing packages are available, these tools did not fully meet the needs of our immunologist collaborators. In this paper, we describe the data information display needs of these immunologists and translate them into design decisions. These decisions led us to create Cerebral, a system that uses a biologically guided graph layout and incorporates experimental data directly into the graph display. Small multiple views of different experimental conditions and a data-...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: TVCG
• Authors: Aaron Barsky, Tamara Munzner, Jennifer L. Gardy, Robert Kincaid
• Keywords: Biological System, Graph Layout, Interaction Graph, TVCG 2008