Shiny-DEG: A Web Application to Analyze and Visualize Differentially Expressed Genes in RNA-seq

Abstract: RNA-seq analysis has become one of the most widely used methods for biological and medical experiments, aiming to identify differentially expressed genes at a large scale. However, due to lack of programming skills and statistical background, it is difficult for biologists including faculty and students to fully understand what the RNA-seq results are and how to interpret them. In recent years, even though, there are several programs or websites that assist researchers to analyze and visualize NGS results, they have several limitations. Therefore, Shiny-DEG, a web application that facilitates the exploration and visualization of differentially expressed genes from RNA-seq, was developed. It integrates multi-factor design experiments, allows users to modify the parameters interactively according to experiments purpose and all analysis results can be downloaded directly, aiming to further assisting the interpretation and explanation of the biological questions. Therefore, it serves better for biologists without programming skills. Overall, this project is of great significance to reveal the mechanism of transcriptome differences.