  Background: To understand protein function, it is important to study protein-
protein interaction networks. These networks can be represented in network
diagrams called protein interaction maps that can lead to better understanding
by visualization. We address the problem of drawing of protein interactions in
Kohn's Molecular Interaction Map (MIM) notation. Even though there are some
existing tools for graphical visualization of protein interactions in general,
there is no tool that can draw protein interactions with MIM notation with full
support. Results: MIMTool was developed for drawing protein interaction maps in
Kohn's MIM notation. MIMTool was developed using the Qt toolkit libraries and
introduces several unique features such as full interactivity, object dragging,
ability to export files in MIMML, SBML and line drawing with automatic bending
and crossover minimization, which are not available in other diagram editors.
MIMTool also has a unique orthogonal edge drawing method that is both easy and
more flexible than other orthogonal drawing methods present in other
interaction drawing tools. Conclusions: MIMTool facilitates faster drawing,
updating and exchanging of MIMs. Among its several features, it also includes a
semi-automatic drawing algorithm that makes use of shortest path algorithm for
constructing lines with small number of bends and crossings. MIMTool
contributes a much needed software tool that was missing and will facilitate
wider adoption of Kohn's MIM notation.
