Authors: Khaled Alganem, Jarek Meller, Robert Mccullumsmith
Presenter: Khaled Alganem

Abstract

An ever-increasing number of bioinformatic tools are being developed to process, analyze and view a wide range of biological datasets. However, with that growing number of biological databases and bioinformatic tools, it becomes difficult to discover and learn how to use these tools, especially for those who are not well versed in the bioinformatics field. We observed that a large number of biological databases and bioinformatics tools that are relevant to psychiatric disorders are relatively untapped. We developed a platform that aims to mitigate this issue.

Kaleidoscope is an interactive R Shiny web application that provides a platform for an easy access to biological databases and bioinformatics tools via a user-friendly interface that could be explored by researchers to test hypothesis in silico. Fully utilizing these robust bioinformatics tools and rich biological databases, interesting information can be obtained that could be very valuable to the field of biological psychiatry. The observations obtained from this platform could supplement existing hypotheses, spawn new ones and possibly direct future studies.