1) Gene Genie is a tool developed by researchers at the Garvan Institute to allow mining of public gene expression databases for common patterns between independent experiments. 2) The researchers used a design thinking process including defining the problem, empathizing with users, ideating solutions, and testing prototypes. 3) Through stakeholder interviews, the researchers identified pain points with current tools including the time-consuming nature of manual curation and a lack of ability to easily compare and store results.

1. Gene Genie
Health Hack Sydney (2015)
Garvan Ins:tute
Presented by Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐Pal, Genome Researcher
Suzanne Cengia, UX designer
Emma Duval, UX designer
Mining tool for discovering
commonali2es in gene
expression data

2. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 2
Define
Understanding
the problem,
se@ng our goal
Design thinking process
Ideate
Brainstorming,
feature
prioriCsaCon
Test
Usability
tesCng
Empathise
Stakeholder
interview,
persona creaCon
Create
Rapid prototyping,
user walkthrough,
iteraCon

3. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 3
Define
Create a tool that mines
public databases for gene
expression data by
keywords, stores results
and allows discovering
common pa>erns between
independent experiments.
Be the recycle team!

4. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 4
Empathise
Current process tools

5. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 5
Empathise
I want to find
common genes
and see where,
in the cell, things
are happening.
Goals:
Streamline and speed up the
process of mining data sets.
Visualisa6ons of data.
Develop hypotheses before
running lab experiments.
Source suitable experiment
candidates.
Current resources:
ArrayExpress
www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress/
GEO www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo
String 10
Pain Points
1. Time-­‐consuming manual
curation.
2. Large number of steps and
touch-­‐points in process.
3. Not knowing if new data is
available.
4. No way to easily compare
results in a big network.
5. No easy way to store results
to compare with new data.
Charlie Genome researcher
Garvan InsCtute
Scenario: Research what makes exercise
so beneficial at the molecular level.

6. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 6
Ideate
Feature priori:sa:on
1. Advanced search.
2. Store searches (Projects).
3. Compare data.
4. Visualise interactions between molecules and
the location of that molecule within the cell.
5. Add new data sets to saved Projects.

7. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 7
Test
Interac:ve prototype

8. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 8
Test
Interac:ve prototype wireframes

9. Garvin Ins:tute Dr Saskia Reibe-­‐PalGene Genie 9
Award
Equal second place