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Entrez module

accessing NCBI over the WWW

Speaker: Miguel González Sosa

sosa@uma.es

What is Entrez?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/search/

What is the Biopython Bio.Entrez module?

The Bio.Entrez module makes use of the nine Entrez Programming Utilities (also known as EUtils).

The nine utilities of Entrez.

  • esearch: text searches.
  • ecitmatch: batch citation searching in PubMed.
  • esummary: document summary downloads.
  • efetch: data record downloads.
  • elink: Entrez links.
  • einfo: database statistics.
  • egquery: global query.
  • espell: spelling suggestions.
  • epost: UID uploads.

NCBI restrictions and guidelines.

  • Since May 1, 2018, is not possible to do more than three requests every second without an API key.
  • With an API key, we can post up to 10 request per second.

You can request your API key in https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/account/settings/ .

NCBI restrictions and guidelines.

  • Provide your email.
  • 
    							>>> from Bio import Entrez
    							>>> Entrez.email = "A.N.Other@example.com"
    						
  • Provide your tool's name.
  • 
    							>>> from Bio import Entrez
    							>>> Entrez.tool = "MyLocalScript"
    						

Why did I choose this software?

Code quality.

  • Modular, well-formated code.
  • Perfectly unit tested.
  • Usage of unittest python native module.
  • Thorough code documentation.
  • Even with examples!
  • Continous integration with TravisCI.
  • Contribution rules.

Demo.

https://mybinder.org/v2/gh/mglezsosa/biopython-entrez-presentation-slides/master .

Conclusions.

References

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25500/

http://biopython.org/DIST/docs/tutorial/Tutorial.pdf

https://github.com/biopython/biopython/blob/master/Bio/Entrez/__init__.py