Flexible user-guided network layout for biomedical applications

Systems biologists often work with complex network diagrams, working to understand the interacting network of genes, proteins and biochemical processes occurring in organisms. Good layout is vital to their effective use, but is difficult for authors to achieve manually. This project will develop powerful new layout algorithms and a new model for integrating automatic layout into interactive network visualisation tools for biology. The main novelty is that the model supports a collaborative approach in which the author uses placement constraints to control and guide the automatic layout. This new interaction model promises to dramatically improve information visualization software for authoring and browsing biological and other networks.

Funding: ARC Discovery Project — DP110101390