Communications of the ACM
Professor Helping Scientists See Their Work in a Different Way
University of Utah computer science assistant professor Miriah Meyer is working on software that helps biologists visualize massive amounts of data to help them discover patterns and make genetic connections.
Credit: Jeffrey D. Allred / Deseret News
University of Utah professor Miriah Meyer has created MizBee, a suite of software tools that helps scientists visualize data in new ways, helping them discover patterns and genetic connections. MizBee helps scientists compare the genomes of one species to that of another. The interface looks like a color wheel, with each color representing a gene and tiny threads that indicate a genetic link between species.
Another tool, called MulteeSum, shows a wave of multicolored dots, with each dot representing the cell of a fruit fly embryo. "We encode meaning through images," Meyer says. "That offers a ton of power." Researchers can use MulteeSum to compare the genome of 12 different species of fruit fly.
Meyer began working on the software after talking to biology researchers while doing her post-doctorate work at Harvard University and seeing the data software they were using and how basic it was. "It was shocking to me how much room for improvement there was," she says. Meyer has made the tools available as open source software.
From Deseret News
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