openPIP 2 Modernizing the Open Source Protein Interaction Platform

openPIP is an open-source platform for hosting and visualizing protein-protein interaction (PPI) data. The current version is built on a PHP 5.6 / Symfony 2.8 stack that has reached end-of-life, making it difficult to maintain and extend. This project performs a complete rewrite of openPIP using modern web frameworks: a React single-page application frontend with Cytoscape.js for network visualization, a REST API backend (Python/Django REST Framework or Node.js/Express, to be finalized with the mentor), and a PostgreSQL database, all containerized with Docker. Key deliverables include: (1) a clean REST API replacing the 27 monolithic PHP controllers, (2) an enhanced data upload pipeline supporting PSI-MI TAB and CSV formats with drag-and-drop, real-time validation, and async processing, (3) a responsive React frontend with interactive search, network visualization, and an admin panel, (4) production-ready Docker Compose deployment, and (5) a data migration script for existing openPIP deployments (HuRI, YeRI). I have direct experience with the openPIP codebase, having created its deployment guide and migrated the platform from openpip.baderlab.org to openpip.usask.ca.