adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills/adaptyvbio-pdb

Claude Code and agent skill by adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills

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Fetch and analyze protein structures from RCSB PDB. Use this skill when: (1) Need to download a structure by PDB ID, (2) Search for similar structures, (3) Prepare target for binder design, (4) Extract specific chains or domains, (5) Get structure metadata. For sequence lookup, use uniprot. For binder design workflow, use binder-design.

Install

npx vskill@latest install adaptyvbio/protein-design-skills/adaptyvbio-pdb

SKILL.md

PDB Database Access

Note: This skill uses the RCSB PDB web API directly. No Modal deployment needed - all operations run locally via HTTP requests.

Fetching Structures

By PDB ID
bash
# Download PDB file
curl -o 1alu.pdb "https://files.rcsb.org/download/1ALU.pdb"
# Download mmCIF
curl -o 1alu.cif "https://files.rcsb.org/download/1ALU.cif"
Using Python
python
from Bio.PDB import PDBList
pdbl = PDBList()
pdbl.retrieve_pdb_file("1ABC", pdir="structures/", file_format="pdb")
Using RCSB API
python
import requests
def fetch_pdb(pdb_id: str, format: str = "pdb") -> str:
"""Fetch structure from RCSB PDB."""
url = f"https://files.rcsb.org/download/{pdb_id}.{format}"
response = requests.get(url)
response.raise_for_status()
return response.text
def fetch_fasta(pdb_id: str) -> str:
"""Fetch sequence in FASTA format."""
url = f"https://www.rcsb.org/fasta/entry/{pdb_id}"
return requests.get(url).text
# Example usage
pdb_content = fetch_pdb("1ALU")
with open("1ALU.pdb", "w") as f:
f.write(pdb_content)

Structure Preparation

Selecting Chains
python
from Bio.PDB import PDBParser, PDBIO, Select
class ChainSelect(Select):
def __init__(self, chain_id):
self.chain_id = chain_id
def accept_chain(self, chain):
return chain.id == self.chain_id
# Extract chain A
parser = PDBParser()
structure = parser.get_structure("protein", "1abc.pdb")
io = PDBIO()
io.set_structure(structure)
io.save("chain_A.pdb", ChainSelect("A"))
Trimming to Binding Region
python
def trim_around_residues(pdb_file, center_residues, buffer=10.0):
"""Trim structure to region around specified residues."""
parser = PDBParser()
structure = parser.get_structure("protein", pdb_file)
# Get center coordinates
center_coords = []
for res in structure.get_residues():
if res.id[1] in center_residues:
center_coords.extend([a.coord for a in res.get_atoms()])
center = np.mean(center_coords, axis=0)
# Keep residues within buffer
class RegionSelect(Select):
def accept_residue(self, res):
for atom in res.get_atoms():
if np.linalg.norm(atom.coord - center) < buffer:
return True
return False
io = PDBIO()
io.set_structure(structure)
io.save("trimmed.pdb", RegionSelect())

Searching PDB

RCSB Search API
python
import requests
query = {
"query": {
"type": "terminal",
"service": "full_text",
"parameters": {
"value": "EGFR kinase domain"
}
},
"return_type": "entry"
}
response = requests.post(
"https://search.rcsb.org/rcsbsearch/v2/query",
json=query
)
results = response.json()
By Sequence Similarity
python
query = {
"query": {
"type": "terminal",
"service": "sequence",
"parameters": {
"value": "MKTAYIAKQRQISFVK...",
"evalue_cutoff": 1e-10,
"identity_cutoff": 0.9
}
}
}

Structure Analysis

Get Chain Info
python
def get_structure_info(pdb_file):
parser = PDBParser(QUIET=True)
structure = parser.get_structure("protein", pdb_file)
info = {
"chains": [],
"total_residues": 0
}
for model in structure:
for chain in model:
residues = list(chain.get_residues())
info["chains"].append({
"id": chain.id,
"length": len(residues),
"first_res": residues[0].id[1],
"last_res": residues[-1].id[1]
})
info["total_residues"] += len(residues)
return info
Find Interface Residues
python
def find_interface_residues(pdb_file, chain_a, chain_b, distance=4.0):
"""Find residues at interface between two chains."""
parser = PDBParser(QUIET=True)
structure = parser.get_structure("complex", pdb_file)
interface_a = set()
interface_b = set()
for res_a in structure[0][chain_a].get_residues():
for res_b in structure[0][chain_b].get_residues():
for atom_a in res_a.get_atoms():
for atom_b in res_b.get_atoms():
if atom_a - atom_b < distance:
interface_a.add(res_a.id[1])
interface_b.add(res_b.id[1])
return interface_a, interface_b

Common Tasks for Binder Design

Target Preparation Checklist
  1. Download structure: curl -o target.pdb "https://files.rcsb.org/download/XXXX.pdb"
  2. Identify target chain
  3. Remove waters and ligands (if needed)
  4. Trim to binding region + buffer
  5. Identify potential hotspots
  6. Renumber if needed

Troubleshooting

Structure not found: Check PDB ID format (4 characters) Multiple models: Select first model for design Missing residues: Check for gaps in structure


Next: Use structure with boltzgen (recommended) or rfdiffusion for design.

Security

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Source

Popularity

Repository stars
125
Repository forks
14
7-day trend score
24

Stars and forks are for the whole GitHub repository, not this skill alone. Refreshed 15 Apr 2026, 6 months ago.

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