Storing, Querying, Summarizing, and Comparing Molecular Networks: The State-of-the-Art

Abstract

A grand challenge of systems biology is to model the cell. The cell can be viewed as an integrated network of cellular functions. Each cellular function is defined by an interconnected ensemble of molecular networks and represent the backbone of molecular activity within the cell. The critical role played by these networks along with rapid advancement in high-throughput techniques has led to explosion in molecular interaction data. In this tutorial we explore the data management and mining techniques that have been proposed in the literature for storing, querying, summarizing, and comparing molecular networks and pathways. It offers an introduction to these issues and a synopsis of the state-of-the-art.