Visualize Data from Biology to Banking

Courtesy of Allometra

Davis, Calif.-based Allometra has released software that will appeal to biologists and personal finance aficionados alike. Based on an algorithm that converts numerical data to color values, PyMood can display any kind of data, from yeast proteins to bank statements, in two- and three-dimensional space using up to one million colors, says Marta Matviemko, Allometra's founder and CEO. But its main function is to display the results of BLAST outputs. "The majority of our customers [use] PyMood for the visualization of sequence comparisons and [to plot and sort] expression data," says Matviemko.

The program, available for both Mac and PC-compatibles, replaces the traditional slog through unwieldy columns of numbers with a visual pattern-based data-extraction capability. PyMood requires little knowledge of bioinformatics; by asking the right questions, users can sort through thousands of potential gene candidates to obtain a more manageable set.

"[PyMood has] allowed us to do...