DrugViz: a Cytoscape plugin for visualizing and analyzing small molecule drugs in biological networks

DrugViz is a Cytoscape plugin that is designed to visualize and analyze small molecules within the framework of the interactome. DrugViz can import drugtarget network information in an extended SIF file format to Cytoscape and display the two-dimensional (2D) structures of small molecule nodes in a unified visualization environment. It also can identify small molecule nodes by means of three different 2D structure searching methods, namely isomorphism, substructure and fingerprint-based similarity searches. After selections, users can furthermore conduct a two-side clustering analysis on drugs and targets, which allows for a detailed analysis of the active compounds in the network, and elucidate relationships between these drugs and targets. DrugViz represents a new tool for the analysis of data from chemogenomics, metabolomics and systems biology.