pyOpenMS-viz: Streamlining Mass Spectrometry Data Visualization with pandas

J Proteome Res. 2025 Apr 4;24(4):2152-2158. doi: 10.1021/acs.jproteome.4c00873. Epub 2025 Feb 28.

Abstract

Mass spectrometry data visualization is essential for a wide range of applications, such as validation of workflows and results, benchmarking new algorithms, and creating comprehensive quality control reports. Python offers a popular and powerful framework for analyzing and visualizing multidimensional data; however, generating commonly used mass spectrometry plots in Python can be cumbersome. Here we present pyOpenMS-viz, a versatile, unified framework for generating mass spectrometry plots. pyOpenMS-viz directly extends pandas DataFrame plotting for generating figures in a single line of code. This implementation enables easy integration across various Python-based mass spectrometry tools that already use pandas DataFrames to store MS data. pyOpenMS-viz is open-source under a BSD 3-Clause license and freely available at https://github.com/OpenMS/pyopenms_viz.

Keywords: mass-spectrometry; python; quality control; validation; visualization.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Data Visualization*
  • Mass Spectrometry* / methods
  • Proteomics* / methods
  • Software*