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Through their work with DNA, protein interactions, and signaling networks, research labs in the biomedical industry and academia are generating enormous datasets. Viewing these datasets presents a challenge: each set of data, such as proteins and other cellular components in a signaling network, can be better understood in a visual format. But datasets are so big that current visualization methods are cumbersome. Popular solutions either display an entire complex network as one static image where individual network components are indistinguishable, while other solutions display networks in reasonable detail but required unreasonable amounts of screen real estate. Visual solutions vary drastically within the field, so research colleagues had hard time sharing and learning from each others' data.
The Iyengar Laboratory at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York has developed a solution to this problem using the Google Gadgets API. With this common platform that's easy to embed in web pages, the research team was able to build a simple network visualization tool called AVIS on top of the API that anyone can view, regardless of operating system, browser, or previously-installed programs. As Seth Berger, an MD/PhD student in the Iyengar laboratory, notes, "It has allowed us to more efficiently share data among our colleagues."
What's more, the Google Gadgets Iyengar Lab created can be used for visualization of any type of network data, so it can solve the viewing and collaboration issues across different laboratories. "Using the Google Gadget API made it really simple to allow users to embed AVIS in their own website," says Berger. It's his hope that as more researchers use this Google Gadget to display and share their data, the better the cross-area insights will be - and the greater the subsequent biomedical research advances.
The gadget can be seen at http://actin.pharm.mssm.edu/AVIS2
About Google Gadgets API
The Google Gadgets API is a simple way to create little applications that run on thousands of sites all over the web that use Google Gadgets for Your Webpage. Google provides free hosting, free bandwidth and an easy way to submit your gadgets to the official directory, where users from all around the world come to find them. Gadgets are so easy to write that you can create your first one in 5 minutes and even turn existing web content into a gadget. There is no special sign-up, and nothing to download. For more information visit http://www.google.com/apis/gadgets/.
