Team 4

Inspiration

The inspiration to pick this project was us wanting to challenge ourselves to see what we could do. How well we code, pick up new skills, and function in a group setting.

What it does

Our code is a tool in the future can be used by scientist to compare metabolites across different databases, and check for synonyms on a metabolite. Primarily from PubChem to both KEGG and HMDB, and then output the file comparing the information to a readable file. We grabbed the information from the sites with an API, so that the user can not have to bonce between so many different websites.

How we built it

To build this program we use Python. The main reason we used python is that most of us do not know any other language thoroughly to write out a script like this, so we stuck with something we are familiar with.

We built the program by running a request command to PubChem to which then an input request what metabolite you are search for. After entering a metabolite the program spits out a .json file, which then we sorted out and obtained the a list of synonyms. With this list we then did a requested from KEGG and then HMDB to produce another list that ends after 20 matches.

Those lists from HMDB and KEGG are then outputted to a readable UI (work in progress). To so a comparison between the sites synonyms list. This should allow easy readability and quick analysis of which site has the better synonyms of the metabolite inputted.

Challenges we ran into

We ran into a problem early into the project that was KEGG's API formatting and getting requests form the site, and then getting the CID from the output.
How to make a UI. This was difficult because we never made on before, and can only make a window with a button that does nothing.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We have a working end product that we are proud of. Alex learned python in a short while and basically mastered it.

What we learned

How to obtain data from a database and compare it to other databases with out going directly to those sites it very cool. API's are a something very useful, and can be used to make the back-end of the code a lot cleaner.