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IBBISIBBIS Screen

About IBBIS Screen

A modern, accessible interface for the International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science (IBBIS) Common Mechanism.

The Mission

As DNA synthesis becomes more accessible, the risk of malicious actors obtaining dangerous pathogens increases. IBBIS Screen aims to mitigate this risk by providing a user-friendly, open-source platform for screening DNA and RNA sequences against known biorisk databases.

The interface is meant for synthesis providers and technicians who need to run a screen but do not use the command line or have bioinformatics training.

The Common Mechanism

This application is built on top of the IBBIS Common Mechanism (commec), an open-source tool designed to standardize and improve DNA synthesis screening globally.

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Documentation

Learn how to integrate the screening API into your own synthesis pipeline, LIMS, or bioinformatics workflows.

API Reference

How it Works

  1. Sequence Submission: Users upload a FASTA file or paste a sequence.
  2. Preprocessing: The sequence is validated, cleaned, and translated if necessary.
  3. Database Alignment: The sequence is aligned against a curated database of known pathogens and toxins (Biorisk Database) and a database of common, safe sequences (Benign Database).
  4. Risk Assessment: An algorithm analyzes the alignments to determine if the sequence poses a biosecurity risk, generating a PASS, FLAG, or WARNING result.