Biskit Explained

Biskit science
Developer:	Raik Grünberg, Johan Leckner, and others
Operating System:	UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X
Genre:	Bioinformatics tool
Programming Language:	Python
License:	GPL

Biskit is an open source software package that facilitates research in structural bioinformatics and molecular modelling. Written in Python, it consists of:

• An object-oriented programming library for manipulating and analyzing macromolecular structures, protein complexes and molecular dynamics trajectories
• A set of programs for solving specific tasks, such as automatic prediction of protein structures by homology modeling, and possible prediction of protein complex structures through flexible protein-protein docking

The library delegates many calculations to more specialized third-party software. It currently utilizes 15 external applications, including X-PLOR, Hex, T-Coffee, DSSP and MODELLER.

The latest Biskit version, 2.4.0, was released on 4 Mar 2012. It was originally developed at the Pasteur Institute. The name "Biskit" refers to the research group's name, Unité de BioInformatique Structurale.