A New Dimension: Visualizing Immersive Genome Graphs
Engineering
ECE 195
Genomics is a current fast growing area of research. With the increase of computing power, bigger and more complicated sets of data are capable of being processed faster than ever before. Data structures have been developed to analyze and handle these large swaths of information in ways previously not feasible. The genome of a species may have many different variations with complex permutations. The genome graph was developed to find a way to represent genome permutations on a single data structure. With the possibility of these graphs becoming very dense and complex, traditional two dimensional graph visualizers start to fail in conveying useful information due to a significant number of overlaps. The Integrated Graph Genome Explorer was built to solve the issue of dense graph overlaps. The developed system allows users view genome graphs in a three dimensional space and in virtual reality. This gives greater readability to genome graphs with dense sections and allows a greater capability for interactability in the form of virtual reality. The Interactive Graph Genome Explorer was developed alongside genome experts who work with genome graphs daily and shows promising results from the preliminary user tests.
