HPDB-Haskell library for processing atomic biomolecular structures in Protein Data Bank format
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Updated: May 5, 2026

Fully Autonomous Characterization and Data Collection from Crystals of Biological Macromolecules
Published on: March 22, 2019
1NMR-2, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Faßberg 11, Göttingen, Germany. miga@nmr.mpibpc.mpg.de.
Background:
Protein DataBank file format is used for the majority of biomolecular data available today. Haskell is a lazy functional language that enjoys a high-level class-based type system, a growing collection of useful libraries and a reputation for efficiency.
Findings:
I present a fast library for processing biomolecular data in the Protein Data Bank format. I present benchmarks indicating that this library is faster than other frequently used Protein Data Bank parsing programs. The proposed library also features a convenient iterator mechanism, and a simple API modeled after BioPython.
Conclusion:
I set a new standard for convenience and efficiency of Protein Data Bank processing in a Haskell library, and release it to open source.
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