Making sense of complex biological data is the daily routine for the VI-Bio group at the NCSA. Whether it be investigating the role of dietary interventions in the human microbiome or improving risk prediction in breast cancer, the VI-Bio is constantly working to make data more accessible, culminating in visual analytic tools for studying genomic and related data. What's not routine about this work are the outcomes. "We take complex biological data and help researchers make sense of it," says Senior Research Scientist Colleen Bushell. Identifying relevant features in these data and presenting the complexity in a visual form improves comprehension, she explains, which in turn leads to new discoveries and insights.
