“Working with researchers at the University of California at Davis (most notably Holly Bik), we created Phinch, an open-source framework for visualizing biological data on the web. Whether it’s genes, proteins or microbial species, Phinch provides an interactive visualization tool that allows users to explore and manipulate large biological datasets. Computer algorithms face significant difficulty in identifying simple data patterns; writing algorithms to tease out complex, subtle relationships (such as those that exist in biological systems) is almost impossible. However, the human eye is adept at spotting visual patterns, able to quickly notice trends and outliers, especially when presented with intuitive, well-designed software tools and user interfaces. This innovative method tackles the current bottleneck in bioinformatics; in addition to giving researchers a unique approach for exploring large datasets, it empowers biologists to conduct powerful analyses without requiring a deep level of computational knowledge.”