PathwayLens
An Electron desktop app for biomedical researchers. Structured summaries of…
AI: publik API or your key
not yet reviewed by publik. It is live now; the founder has not reviewed this version yet.
by 
Where PathwayLens’s AI runs, and what it costs
Prices are for one typical use: one request of about 1,500 words sent and 375 words back. A higher quality score is better.
On your computer
Not checked yet: publik has not read whether PathwayLens can run its AI on your computer.
publik API
- Price
- $0.0100 per use, $10.00 per 1,000 usespublik-balanced, the default level
- Quality
- MiMo-V2.6-Pro: 46
- Setup
- Built in. No key to paste; linking your publik account gives $0.05 of free use, once.
Your own key
- Price
- $0.0013 per use, $1.31 per 1,000 usesMiMo-V2.6-Pro at OpenRouter’s list price, before its fee for buying usage
- Quality
- MiMo-V2.6-Pro: 46
- Setup
- Open a provider account, add a card, paste the key into PathwayLens.
Quality and price, side by side
| Model | Quality | Per 1,000 uses |
|---|---|---|
| On your computer (Ollama, 4-bit download size) | ||
| Granite 4.2 3B2.2 GB | 9 | $0 |
| Phi-4 Mini2.5 GB | 6 | $0 |
| Llama 3.1 8B4.9 GB | 7 | $0 |
| gpt-oss 20B14 GB | 9 | $0 |
| Gemma 4 31B20 GB | 19* | $0 |
| Qwen3.5 35B-A3B24 GB | 19* | $0 |
| publik API | ||
| publik-fastGLM-5.3 Flash | 42 | $1.00 |
| publik-balancedMiMo-V2.6-Pro · PathwayLens | 46 | $10.00 |
| publik-smartGPT-6 Sol | 48 | $18.00 |
Quality: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v4.3.2, read 2026-09-22 (publik API models 2026-09-25); * = estimated by Artificial Analysis. Sizes: the Ollama library, read 2026-09-22.
What you pay for
- On your computer: nothing per use. You pay in disk space, memory and electricity, at lower quality.
- publik API: publik’s published price for each use, in dollars, from your publik balance. It is above the model’s cost; the difference runs publik and pays the app’s builder.
- Your own key: the provider’s price, billed to an account you keep with the provider.
README
Open in GitHubPathwayLens
A desktop research assistant for querying biological entities and fetching structured summaries from curated research databases.
Overview
PathwayLens helps researchers quickly gather and synthesize information about genes, diseases, and pathways from multiple authoritative sources:
- NCBI — Gene data and PubMed literature
- UniProt — Protein function and annotations
- Ensembl — Gene structure and genomic context
- Reactome — Biological pathway data
Queries are resolved in parallel, then synthesized into structured summaries with confidence ratings and source citations.
Prerequisites
- Node.js 18 or higher
- npm 9 or higher
- NVIDIA NIM API key (free tier available)
Development
npm install
npm run dev
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
npm run dev | Start dev server |
npm run build | Build all processes |
npm run build:win | Package Windows installer |
npm run build:mac | Package macOS DMG |
npm run build:linux | Package Linux AppImage/deb/rpm |
npm run test | Run tests |
npm run test:watch | Run tests in watch mode |
Environment
Create a .env file at the project root:
NIM_API_KEY=your-nvidia-nim-api-key
NCBI_API_KEY=your-ncbi-api-key (optional, for higher rate limits)
Project Structure
src/
├── main/ # Electron main process
│ ├── apis/ # External API clients (NCBI, UniProt, Ensembl, Reactome)
│ ├── nim.ts # NVIDIA NIM synthesis client
│ ├── cache.ts # Query result caching
│ └── ipc.ts # IPC handlers
├── preload/ # Context bridge
├── renderer/ # React UI
│ ├── components/ # SearchBar, Sidebar, SummaryPanel, SourceCard, WhatToReadNext
│ └── stores/ # Zustand state
└── shared/ # Types used across processes
Contributing
Contributions are welcome. To get started:
- Fork the repository
- Create a branch (
git checkout -b feature/my-feature) - Make your changes
- Run
npm run testto verify - Commit and push
- Open a pull request
If you find a bug or have a feature request, please open an issue.