NavMol 3.0: enabling the representation of metabolic reactions by blind users

Yuri Binev; Daniela Peixoto; Florbela Pereira; Ian Rodrigues; Sofia Cavaco; Ana M Lobo; João Aires-de-Sousa

doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btx556

NavMol 3.0: enabling the representation of metabolic reactions by blind users

Bioinformatics. 2018 Jan 1;34(1):120-121. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btx556.

Authors

Yuri Binev¹, Daniela Peixoto¹, Florbela Pereira¹, Ian Rodrigues², Sofia Cavaco², Ana M Lobo¹, João Aires-de-Sousa¹

Affiliations

¹ LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.
² NOVA LINCS, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal.

PMID: 28968640
DOI: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btx556

Abstract

Summary: The representation of metabolic reactions strongly relies on visualization, which is a major barrier for blind users. The NavMol software renders the communication and interpretation of molecular structures and reactions accessible by integrating chemoinformatics and assistive technology. NavMol 3.0 provides a molecular editor for metabolic reactions. The user can start with templates of reactions and build from such cores. Atom-to-atom mapping enables changes in the reactants to be reflected in the products (and vice-versa) and the reaction centres to be automatically identified. Blind users can easily interact with the software using the keyboard and text-to-speech technology.

Availability and implementation: NavMol 3.0 is free and open source under the GNU general public license (GPLv3), and can be downloaded at http://sourceforge.net/projects/navmol as a JAR file.

Contact: joao@airesdesousa.com.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Blindness*
Humans
Metabolic Networks and Pathways*
Sensory Aids*
Software*