title: Interactive web service system for exploration of biological pathways.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Existing bioinformatics databases such as KEGG (Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes) provide a wealth of information. However, they generally lack a user-friendly and interactive interface.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study proposes a web service system for exploring the contents of the KEGG database in an intuitive and interactive manner. In the proposed system, the requested pathways are uploaded from the KEGG database and are converted from a static format into an interactive format such that their contents can be more readily explored. The system supports two basic functions, namely an exhaustive search for all possible reaction paths between two specified genes in a biological pathway, and the identification of similar reaction sequences in different biological pathways.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The feasibility of the proposed system is evaluated by means of an initial pilot study involving 10 students with varying degrees of experience of the KEGG website and its operations. The results indicate that the system provides a useful learning tool for investigating biological pathways.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A system is proposed for converting the static pathway maps in KEGG into interactive maps such that they can be explored at will. The results of a preliminary trial confirm that the system is straightforward to use and provides a versatile and effective tool for examining and comparing biological pathways.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Nan-Tai Street, Yungkang District, Tainan City 710, Taiwan. Electronic address: sean.zx.yin@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zong-Xian
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Nan-Tai Street, Yungkang District, Tainan City 710, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Sin-Yan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology; D003196:Computer Graphics; D016208:Databases, Factual; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D010865:Pilot Projects; D057386:Search Engine; D014584:User-Computer Interface
keywords: Bioinformatics; Biological pathways; Data analysis; Medical information and modeling; Visualization