BPG: Seamless, automated and interactive visualization of scientific data

Christine P'ng; Jeffrey Green; Lauren C Chong; Daryl Waggott; Stephenie D Prokopec; Mehrdad Shamsi; Francis Nguyen; Denise Y F Mak; Felix Lam; Marco A Albuquerque; Ying Wu; Esther H Jung; Maud H W Starmans; Michelle A Chan-Seng-Yue; Cindy Q Yao; Bianca Liang; Emilie Lalonde; Syed Haider; Nicole A Simone; Dorota Sendorek; Kenneth C Chu; Nathalie C Moon; Natalie S Fox; Michal R Grzadkowski; Nicholas J Harding; Clement Fung; Amanda R Murdoch; Kathleen E Houlahan; Jianxin Wang; David R Garcia; Richard de Borja; Ren X Sun; Xihui Lin; Gregory M Chen; Aileen Lu; Yu-Jia Shiah; Amin Zia; Ryan Kearns; Paul C Boutros

doi:10.1186/s12859-019-2610-2

BPG: Seamless, automated and interactive visualization of scientific data

BMC Bioinformatics. 2019 Jan 21;20(1):42. doi: 10.1186/s12859-019-2610-2.

Authors

Christine P'ng¹, Jeffrey Green¹, Lauren C Chong¹, Daryl Waggott¹, Stephenie D Prokopec¹, Mehrdad Shamsi¹, Francis Nguyen¹, Denise Y F Mak¹, Felix Lam¹, Marco A Albuquerque¹, Ying Wu¹, Esther H Jung¹, Maud H W Starmans¹, Michelle A Chan-Seng-Yue¹, Cindy Q Yao^{1

2}, Bianca Liang¹, Emilie Lalonde^{1

2}, Syed Haider¹, Nicole A Simone¹, Dorota Sendorek¹, Kenneth C Chu¹, Nathalie C Moon¹, Natalie S Fox^{1

2}, Michal R Grzadkowski¹, Nicholas J Harding¹, Clement Fung¹, Amanda R Murdoch¹, Kathleen E Houlahan^{1

2}, Jianxin Wang^{1

3}, David R Garcia¹, Richard de Borja¹, Ren X Sun^{1

4}, Xihui Lin¹, Gregory M Chen¹, Aileen Lu^{1

4}, Yu-Jia Shiah^{1

2}, Amin Zia¹, Ryan Kearns¹, Paul C Boutros^{5

6

7

8

9

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Canada.
² Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
³ Present address: Center for Computational Research, Buffalo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics, NYS Center for Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Science, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, USA.
⁴ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
⁵ Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Toronto, Canada. pboutros@mednet.ucla.edu.
⁶ Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. pboutros@mednet.ucla.edu.
⁷ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. pboutros@mednet.ucla.edu.
⁸ Department of Human Genetics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. pboutros@mednet.ucla.edu.
⁹ Department of Urology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. pboutros@mednet.ucla.edu.
¹⁰ Institute for Precision Health, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. pboutros@mednet.ucla.edu.
¹¹ Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, USA. pboutros@mednet.ucla.edu.

Abstract

Background: We introduce BPG, a framework for generating publication-quality, highly-customizable plots in the R statistical environment.

Results: This open-source package includes multiple methods of displaying high-dimensional datasets and facilitates generation of complex multi-panel figures, making it suitable for complex datasets. A web-based interactive tool allows online figure customization, from which R code can be downloaded for integration with computational pipelines.

Conclusion: BPG provides a new approach for linking interactive and scripted data visualization and is available at http://labs.oicr.on.ca/boutros-lab/software/bpg or via CRAN at https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/BoutrosLab.plotting.general.

Keywords: Data-visualization; Interactive plotting; Software; Web-resources.

MeSH terms

Data Analysis*
Humans
Simulation Training / methods*
Software

Grants and funding

RS2014-01/Prostate Cancer Canada (CA)