FAQs
What is Medusa?
Medusa is a visualization tool that is able to visualize and analyze biological networks in 2D. It is an open source project and it is offered both as a stand alone or a web applet.
It can be found at : https://sites.google.com/site/medusa3visualization
Why use Medusa?
There are several reasons why someone could use Medusa. Medusa now comes with several layout and clustering algorithms to analyze biological networks on the fly without the need of intermediate platforms. It is open source so that code can change according to the needs of each project and it is computationally cheap. It is able to support both directed and undirected graphs and it is a great tool for data integration since users can connect nodes with up to 10 different ways. To complement its functionality with strengths of other software, it is currently compatible with several established visualization tools. It is offered as an applet which makes it a great tool to support web applications.
How do I use Medusa?
Medusa can be used in 2 ways. Either as a stand alone application or as an applet. Even though the applet comes with limited functionality comparing to the stand alone application most of the features are supported. Medusa supports its own flexible file format while in the case of the applet, most of the parameters can be imported in a simple HTML.
Can it support large scale networks?
Medusa has no limitations concerning the size of the networks that it is able to display. It is a very suitable tools for smaller and medium sized networks but it could also visualize and analyze any large scale networks. GUI operations combined with rich layout algorithms try to make the networks as more informative as possible.