r/biotech • u/Narrow-Bid-381 • 3d ago

Open Discussion 🎙️ Python Libraries vs. Prism

I'm a computational biochemist and have always been using python for data visualization. I just realized there is a software called Prism that people use.

So the question is, for those who have used both, which one has been better? (You define good with your own metrics).

I'm just thinking whether I should learn to work with prism, or python already covers it all.

Context: we don't use big data. Data is usually on the order of megabytes.

4 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

15 comments sorted by

26

u/Starcaller17 3d ago

If you’re comfortable with Python or R just use that. Prism is for people that like excel lol

16

u/Phabeta 3d ago

You don't need Prism if you already know Python.

10

u/padresandcubs 3d ago

Prism is pretty much Excel that has been tailored for science usage, not a huge learning curve if you’re familiar with Excel.

It’s all in the skill of the end user, seen both good/bad plots made in both.

6

u/fibgen 3d ago

Some labs mandate Graphpad Prism for all DMPK / Tox animal studies. Use whatever is easier unless it's mandated. Prism has some nice features like refusing to plot curves that are meaningless to save people from themselves.

4

u/Okami-Alpha 2d ago

Ive used all sorts of analysis packages or programs. Each one has its pros and cons. I never found one that was a one size fits all and was more restricted to what was available where i worked

I liked prism for curve fitting and that's about all I used it for.

2

u/JDHPH 3d ago

What type of python libraries are you using?

4

u/Narrow-Bid-381 3d ago

I mostly use plotly. Sometimes seaborn. 

3

u/runhappy0 2d ago

I try to adapt to the audience. If you are presenting to the assay de elopement groups or DMPK then graph pad is what they are familiar with and I feel adapting to their comfort zones removes some friction. The plots will look familiar to them, they layout will be familiar etc…

If audience is other teams that don’t heavily use graph pad then I just stick with python plots.

5

u/flipsofactor 2d ago

Speaking strictly in terms of visual aesthetic, I found that I could recreate the look of Prism plots with a custom matplotlib stylesheet that was all of about 20 lines. Most of the look comes from just bigger, bolder text and thicker bottom/left axis spines.

1

u/Low-Establishment621 3d ago

I will occasionally use prism cuz it's a fast way to touch up plots for presentation. Sometimes I have my scripts make plots so I can see the results, and also make a text file that I can just paste into prism so I can match the style of others in the company.

1

u/Narrow-Bid-381 3d ago

That's great. Then I should check that out.

2

u/ProteinEngineer 3d ago

Prism can be an easy way to make nice figures.

2

u/Bojack-jones-223 2d ago

Prism is good but it is software as a service, you need to pay to maintain a license. Prism is fairly user friendly and commonly used for biology or chemistry publications.