Cistrome Explorer: an interactive visual analysis tool for large-scale epigenomic data

Area of Science:

• Genomics
• Computational Biology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Gene regulation by cis-regulatory elements (CREs) is complex and varies across cell types.
• Analyzing large datasets of chromatin profiles is crucial for understanding these variations.
• Integrating visual and computational methods can yield significant biological insights.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an interactive visual analytics tool for exploring chromatin profiles.
• To facilitate the discovery of patterns in CREs and their associated transcription factor binding.
• To provide a user-friendly platform for analyzing diverse cell type data.

Main Methods:

• Development of Cistrome Explorer, a web-based visual analytics tool.
• Integration with the Cistrome Data Browser, containing thousands of ChIP-seq, DNase-seq, and ATAC-seq samples.
• Utilizing interactive visualization for exploring patterns across diverse cell types.

Main Results:

• Cistrome Explorer enables exploration of thousands of chromatin profiles.
• The tool facilitates the discovery of CRE patterns across different cell types.
• Identification of transcription factor binding sites underlying observed CRE patterns is enabled.

Conclusions:

• Cistrome Explorer is a valuable resource for researchers studying gene regulation.
• The tool enhances the ability to uncover cell-type-specific regulatory mechanisms.
• Visual analytics combined with large datasets offers powerful insights into genomic regulation.