Biological network analysis with CentiScaPe: centralities and experimental dataset integration

Abstract

The growing dimension and complexity of available experimental data generating biological networks has increased the need for tools allowing to categorize nodes by their topological relevance in biological networks. Here we present CentiScaPe, a Cytoscape app specifically designed to calculate centrality indexes for the identification of the most important nodes of a network. CentiScaPe is a comprehensive suite of algorithms dedicated to network nodes centrality analysis, computing several centralities for undirected, directed and weighted networks. The results of the topological analysis can be also integrated with data sets from lab experiments, such as expression or phosphorylation levels of the proteins represented in the network, using the graphical features of the tool. This opens a new perspective in the analysis of biological networks, since integration of topological analysis with lab experimental data can increase the predictive power of a bioinformatical analysis.