CoolBox: a flexible toolkit for visual analysis of genomics data

BACKGROUND: Data visualization, especially the genome track plots, is crucial for genomics researchers to discover patterns in large-scale sequencing dataset. Although existing tools works well for producing a normal view of the input data, they are not convenient when users want to create customized data representations. Such gap between the visualization and data processing, prevents the users to uncover more hidden structure of the dataset. RESULTS: We developed CoolBox—an open-source toolkit for visual analysis of genomics data. This user-friendly toolkit is highly compatible with the Python ecosystem and customizable with a well-designed user interface. It can be used in various visualization situations like a Swiss army knife. For example, to produce high-quality genome track plots or fetch commonly used genomic data files with a Python script or command line, to explore genomic data interactively within Jupyter environment or web browser. Moreover, owing to the highly extensible Application Programming Interface design, users can customize their own tracks without difficulty, which greatly facilitate analytical, comparative genomic data visualization tasks. CONCLUSIONS: CoolBox allows users to produce high-quality visualization plots and explore their data in a flexible, programmable and user-friendly way.