Pathway Projector: an Interactive Pathway Browser with Zoomable User Interface

In systems biology, the biochemical pathway provides an essential context for understanding comprehensive experimental data and the systematic workings of a cell [1]. Therefore, the availability of online pathway browsers will facilitate post-genomic research, just as genome browsers have contributed to genomics. Many pathway maps have been provided online as part of public pathway databases [2]; however, most of these maps function as the gateway interface to a specific database, and the comprehensiveness of their represented entities, data mapping capabilities, as well as user interfaces are not always sufficient for generic usage. Therefore, we present a generic web-based pathway browser named the Pathway Projector. Pathway Projector has been updated for the reference pathway map and data mapping system since GIW 2008 [3]. For example, the map for E. coli now contains 1365 genes, 1813 enzymes, and 1572 metabolites. The data mapping system has been extended to allow visualization of time series data as graphs on the map. Pathway Projector is freely available for academic users at http://www.g-language.org/PathwayProjector/.