The current invention provides a visual or audio-visual
programming environment for life science and
bioinformatics. It is based on the VIBE platform, which is a flexible, extensible, and integrated
workflow construction and management platform. The current invention enables researchers to consolidate molecular profiling data from complementary experimental techniques, intelligently reduce the volume of the data, construct
disease-specific molecular fingerprints, construct relationship networks among functionally significant genomic, transcriptomic, metabonomic, and proteomic data, integrate information from existing biological databases into those networks, optimize the process through iterative feedback loops, and to generate and validate hypotheses based on the above process. The uses of this integrative, systems-based approach include, but are not limited to, the identification of
potential biomarkers, characterization and classification of diseases and pathogens, and discovery of
drug targets.