Distributed and interactive visual analysis of omics data

The amount of publicly shared proteomics data has grown exponentially over the last decade as the solutions for sharing and storing the data have improved. However, the use of the data is often limited by the manner of which it is made available. There are two main approaches: download and inspect the proteomics data locally, or interact with the data via one or more web pages. The first is limited by having to download the data and thus requires local computational skills and resources, while the latter most often is limited in terms of interactivity and the analysis options available. A solution is to develop web-based systems supporting distributed and fully interactive visual analysis of proteomics data. The use of a distributed architecture makes it possible to perform the computational analysis at the server, while the results of the analysis can be displayed via a web browser without the need to download the whole dataset. Here the challenges related to developing such systems for omics data will be discussed. Especially how this allows for multiple connected interactive visual displays of omics dataset in a web-based setting, and the benefits this provide for computational analysis of proteomics data.This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Computational Proteomics.