Biopython
Primary retained Python toolkit for molecular biology sequence work.
Install
npx skills add foryourhealth111-pixel/Vibe-Skills --skill biopython -g -a claude-code -y- Repository
- foryourhealth111-pixel/Vibe-Skills3.8k
- Category
- Data and ML
- Updated
- 5d ago
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Context cost
- Mediumabout 3,000 tokens
- Runs scripts
- No, instructions only
What it does
Primary retained Python toolkit for molecular biology sequence work. Preferred for sequence manipulation, FASTA/FASTQ/GenBank parsing, Bio.Entrez, BLAST workflows, alignments, structures, and phylogenetics. For biological database evidence lookup, use bio-database-evidence. For single-cell workflows use scanpy. For direct literature REST API, use pubmed-database.
Biopython: Computational Molecular Biology in Python
Overview
Biopython is a comprehensive set of freely available Python tools for biological computation. It provides functionality for sequence manipulation, file I/O, database access, structural bioinformatics, phylogenetics, and many other bioinformatics tasks. The current version is Biopython 1.85 (released January 2025), which supports Python 3 and requires NumPy.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when:
- Working with biological sequences (DNA, RNA, or protein)
- Reading, writing, or converting biological file formats (FASTA, GenBank, FASTQ, PDB, mmCIF, etc.)
- Accessing NCBI databases (GenBank, PubMed, Protein, Gene, etc.) via Entrez
- Running BLAST searches or parsing BLAST results
- Performing sequence alignments (pairwise or multiple sequence alignments)
- Analyzing protein structures from PDB files
- Creating, manipulating, or visualizing phylogenetic trees
- Finding sequence motifs or analyzing motif patterns
- Calculating sequence statistics (GC content, molecular weight, melting temperature, etc.)
- Performing structural bioinformatics tasks
- Working with population genetics data
- Any other computational molecular biology task
Do not use this skill as a catch-all for single-cell analysis, bulk RNA-seq differential expression, biological database evidence tables, protein language model training, metabolic flux modeling, or flow-cytometry file parsing. Those surfaces are either owned by another retained bio-science skill or intentionally no longer exposed as separate bundled route owners.
Core Capabilities
Biopython is organized into modular sub-packages, each addressing specific bioinformatics domains:
