Biological storytelling: a software tool for biological information organization based upon narrative structure

  • Authors:
  • Allan Kuchinsky;Kathy Graham;David Moh;Annette Adler;Ketan Babaria;Michael L. Creech

  • Affiliations:
  • Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA;Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA;Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA;Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA;Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA;BlueOak Software, Los Altos, CA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

The main task of molecular biologists seeking to understand the molecular basis of disease is identifying and interpreting the relationships of genes, proteins, and pathways in living organisms. While emerging technologies have provided powerful analysis tools to this end, they have also produced an explosion of data, which biologists need to make sense of. We have built software tools to support the synthesis activities of molecular biologists, in particular the activities of organizing, retrieving, using, sharing, and reusing diverse biological information. A key aspect of our approach, based upon the findings of user studies, is the use of narrative structure as a conceptual framework for developing and representing the "story" of how genes, proteins, and other molecules interact in biological processes. Biological stories are represented both textually and graphically within a simple conceptual model of items, collections, and stories.