A Graph Representation of Viral Genomes

The best way for researchers in the biology field to understand how viruses mutate, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, is to compare the different genomes. Our project’s goal was to create software that visualized the comparisons to support this endeavor. The software we created is meant to support the researchers working with the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the 2020 pandemic, with the goal of finding out how the virus mutates and the different strains created. Though our primary goal was to work with the SARS-Cov-2 virus, our software does support comparisons for any genome that needs to be studied.

Our methods include creating an interactive user interface (UI) where the user can upload different genomes to compare in the visualization. The user can then print or download the visualization that was created, search different genomes stored in the CSV file, and delete any unneeded genomes in the file. The research completed for this project was focused heavily on understanding how viral genomes were viewed and compared as well as learning more in the research area of bioinformatics and computational biology.

We were challenged to further our understanding of how to easily portray the genomes in an easy-to-read manner. Our research covered many computational areas, though we were tested in understanding the biology side of the project. This was a fascinating endeavor that furthered our education and opened our minds to understanding the basics of the bioinformatics field. We were able to finish a working prototype by the end of the semester and we hope to see the project grow and adapt to stay relevant in the future.