Michael Schroeder,
David Gilbert and Jacques van Helden, Penny Noy
Approaches to visualisation in bioinformatics: from dendrograms to Space Explorer
In Information Sciences: An
International Journal, 139(1):19-57, Elsevier, 2001
Abstract:
With the data explosion in biology visualisation techniques are of
paramount importance for further progress. In this paper,
we present a framework to characterise the
visualisation process. We identify two main data types and introduce
structure comparison data and gene expression data as representatives,
which serve as running examples throughout. Next, we review various
distance measures and develop a design methodology for distances. We
critically review the classical approach of clustering and
visualisation through trees, in particular dendrograms, and pinpoint
shortcomings of this technique. In order to tackle these shortcomings,
we survey information visualisation techniques and we discuss an
alternative approach and system: Space Explorer, which maps the
relationships of objects to distances and visualizes these distances
in a 3D, interactive space. We evaluate three layout
algorithms for the two data types and apply them to our case studies.
Full
Paper (preprint)