The Art of Data Visualization: Extracting Meaning From Insights
A picture is worth a thousand words. Data visualization enables us to effectively communicate complex data. Analytics must be clearly portrayed and easily comprehensible due to the massive amount of data that is becoming available. The iGEM Community’s Academia and Research team’s third workshop in the Academic publishing workshop series, “Analysis and Visualisation of Gene Expression Data by Dr. Jacob Beal”, highlights the importance of effective Gene expression data analysis and visualization. He provides a walkthrough on how to relate the data to biology, as well as the importance of graphical representation.
Some excerpts:
While talking about how to relate the data to biology, he emphasised on the importance of avoiding relative and arbitrary units, thinking carefully before relating measurement to biology and using geometric statistics for gene expression.
He also highlighted the significance of taking advantage of process controls by ensuring one control per factor/assumption per study, as well as the significance of sanity-checking your control values through comparison of calibrants and so on.
He talks about the core principles of data presentation - “Presenting data is just as important as collecting…” and their application
He also places an emphasis on telling a story through the figure captions during data presentation
The Academia and Research topic at iGEM Community provides a platform for our community to engage, develop a better understanding and improve their knowledge of the recent research trends in Synthetic Biology through academic-related activities. Find more about them on our website.
