Viewing the larger context of genomic data through horizontal integration

Genomics is an important emerging scientific field that relies on meaningful data visualization as a key step in analysis. Specifically, most investigation of gene expression microarray data is performed using visualization techniques. However, as microarrays become more ubiquitous, researchers must analyze their own data within the context of previously published work in order to gain a more complete understanding. No current method for microarray visualization and analysis enables biology researchers to observe the greater context of data that surrounds their own results, which severely limits the ability of researchers draw novel conclusions. Here we present a system, called HIDRA, that visually integrates the simultaneous display of multiple microarray datasets to identify important parallels and dissimilarities. We demonstrate the power of our approach through examples of real-world biological insights that can be observed using HIDRA that are not apparent using other techniques.