Network visualization for integrative bioinformatics

Abstract

Approaches to investigate biological processes have been of strong interest in the past few years and are the focus of several research areas like systems biology. Biological networks as representations of such processes are crucial for an extensive understanding of living beings. Due to their size and complexity, their growth and continuous change, as well as their compilation from databases on demand, researchers very often request novel network visualization, interaction, and exploration techniques. In this chapter, we first provide background information that is needed for the interactive visual analysis of various biological networks. Fields such as (information) visualization, visual analytics, and automatic layout of networks are highlighted and illustrated by a number of examples. Then, the state of the art in network visualization for the life sciences is presented together with a discussion of standards for the graphical representation of cellular networks and biological processes.