# PEtab-GUI: a graphical user interface to create, edit, and inspect PEtab parameter estimation problems

## TL;DR

PEtab-GUI is a user-friendly tool that simplifies creating and managing parameter estimation problems in systems biology using the PEtab standard.

## Contribution

PEtab-GUI introduces a graphical interface for streamlined, error-checked creation of standardized parameter estimation problems.

## Key findings

- PEtab-GUI integrates all PEtab components into a single environment with live error checking.
- The tool enhances accessibility for educational and interdisciplinary use of dynamic modeling.
- It supports interactive visualization and simulation of model-data relationships.

## Abstract

Parameter estimation is a cornerstone of data-driven modeling in systems biology. Yet, constructing such problems in a reproducible and accessible manner remains challenging. The PEtab format has established itself as a powerful community standard to encode parameter estimation problems, promoting interoperability and reusability. However, its reliance on multiple interlinked files—often edited manually—can introduce inconsistencies, and new users often struggle to navigate them. Here, we present PEtab-GUI, an open-source Python application designed to streamline the creation, editing, and validation of PEtab problems through an intuitive graphical user interface. PEtab-GUI integrates all PEtab components, including SBML models and tabular files, into a single environment with live error checking and customizable defaults. Interactive visualization and simulation capabilities enable users to inspect the relationship between the model and the data. PEtab-GUI lowers the barrier to entry for specifying standardized parameter estimation problems, making dynamic modeling more accessible, especially in educational and interdisciplinary settings.

PEtab-GUI is implemented in Python, open-source under a 3-Clause BSD license. The code, designed to be modular and extensible, is hosted on https://github.com/PEtab-dev/PEtab-GUI, available as a Zenodo repository at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15355752, and can be installed from PyPI.