Uniprot XML and Python ElementTree

Biopython does not have support for Uniprot. The reason is because it holds so much data that it would defeat the point to introduce a complex standard that the user would have to try and remember and the best way is for the user to choose themselves what piece of data they want.

Here I discuss the best way to deal with Uniprot XML files using ElementTree, which is really nice, but awkward at times, hence why I talk about a few monkeypatches that help. If you do not wish to deal with ElementTree (say you want a really quick, bu messy fix) see my post about complicated dictionaries.

PDB in Office 365

Today I noticed that Word and the rest of Office 365 (i.e. Powerpoint included) can read .obj files (Wavefront files).
This means that I can export in PyMol (via the command "save whatever.obj") a .pse/.pdb to .obj file and open it in Word or Powerpoint or even Outlook. Quite fun and potentially useful little feature. Do note that colours are obviously lost, so it is a bit limiting. The loss of colour is due to PyMOL (Blender exported Wavefront files are textured). Also, only the cartoon of every residue is given, not only visible, and all sticks etc. are lost.

Phosphorylated PDB files

Sometime in human protein, a residue is phosphorylated, yet the model one gets from I-TASSER, Phyre etc. or the actual PDB structure lacks these. Here is how to add them easily and quickly with Rosetta.

A failsafe decorator for a python class

Often a Python class may have lots of bound methods that may fail, but it is not really a problem. Here I present a tidy way to deal with catching the errors with a decorator.

How to deal with horridly complex dictionaries in Python

NCBI and Uniprot data is complex, so is understandably stored as byzantine data structures, which have rather consistent schema, but hard to decipher. Depending on workflow, XML files are can be stored as dictionaries or as ElementTree.Element instances. I will talk about both, here I will talk about dictionaries —elsewhere I discuss using ElementTree. These are easier to deal with in some cases, but you can spend ages trying to find the series of keys and indices required to find a given value.
Here I present a nice pair of Python methods to get a given key or value in a convoluted object of nested dictionary-like and list-like objects.

Python website on a shoestring budget, a tutorial

If you have a Python script you want to make into a website yet want to do it for a cheap as possible, it may seem like an impossible cause. But it isn't. Three options are possible:

1. use a free service
2. use a grant-based service
3. run a server at home on a Raspberry Pi

Each have their merits, but the latter more so. Hence, why this tutorial is dedicated to showing you how to do it.

Everything you wanted to know about isopeptide bonds in Rosetta, but were too afraid to ask

Rosetta is great at predicting (with some accuracy) the energies of variant proteins, however, to make the most out of it with proteins with internal isopeptide bonds a few considerations are needed.