VANESA - a software application for the visualization and analysis of networks in system biology applications

VANESA is a modeling software for the automatic reconstruction and analysis of biological networks based on life-science database information. Using VANESA, scientists are able to model any kind of biological processes and systems as biological networks. It is now possible for scientists to automatically reconstruct important molecular systems with information from the databases KEGG, MINT, IntAct, HPRD, and BRENDA. Additionally, experimental results can be expanded with database information to better analyze the investigated elements and processes in an overall context. Users also have the possibility to use graph theoretical approaches in VANESA to identify regulatory structures and significant actors within the modeled systems. These structures can then be further investigated in the Petri net environment of VANESA. It is platform-independent, free-of-charge, and available at http://vanesa.sf.net.