Installation¶

Quick Install (pip)¶

pip install mdna

From Source¶

Clone the repository (including submodules for the Monte Carlo engine):

git clone --recurse-submodules -j8 git@github.com:heezch/mdna.git
cd mdna
pip install -e .

Dependencies¶

MDNA requires Python 3.9+ and depends on:

Package	Purpose
numpy	Numerical arrays and linear algebra
scipy	Spline interpolation, rotations
mdtraj	Molecular trajectory I/O and topology
matplotlib	Visualization and plotting
numba	JIT-compiled geometry routines

Optional Dependencies¶

Package	Purpose
openmm	Molecular dynamics simulation via `sequence_to_md()`
nglview	Interactive 3D molecular visualization in notebooks
joblib	Parallel computation in groove analysis

Verify Installation¶

import mdna
print(mdna.__version__)

# Quick smoke test — generate a 12-bp DNA
dna = mdna.make(sequence='CGCGAATTCGCG')
dna.describe()

If this prints the DNA structure info without errors, you're ready to go.

Building PyLk Cython Extensions¶

MDNA vendors PyLk (inside mdna/PMCpy/pmcpy/Evals/PyLk) for linking-number and writhe calculations. Without the compiled Cython extensions you may see warnings like "Cython version of writhemap/linkingnumber not compiled". The pure-Python fallback still works, but the compiled version is significantly faster.

1. Install Cython¶

# conda / mamba
mamba install -n mdna cython

# or pip
pip install Cython

2. Compile in-place¶

# from the repository root
cd mdna/PMCpy/pmcpy/Evals/PyLk
python setup.py build_ext --inplace

If you use conda/mamba, you can run with your environment explicitly:

mamba run -n mdna python mdna/PMCpy/pmcpy/Evals/PyLk/setup.py build_ext --inplace

3. Verify¶

from mdna.PMCpy.pmcpy.Evals.PyLk.pylk import writhemap, eval_link
print("PyLk OK:", writhemap.__name__, eval_link.__name__)

Filament Dataset (for notebooks)¶

Several Jupyter notebooks (e.g. the filament tutorial) require an external dataset hosted on Figshare. To download it:

cd docs/notebooks
export MDNA_FILAMENT_DATASET_URL='https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.31423193'
python ./scripts/fetch_filament_dataset.py --output-root ./data

The fetch script resolves the DOI to the direct download URL, downloads the archive, and unpacks it into data/filament_dataset/.

Optional integrity check

If you have the published SHA256 hash of the archive, you can verify:

export MDNA_FILAMENT_DATASET_SHA256='<REAL_SHA256>'
python ./scripts/fetch_filament_dataset.py --output-root ./data --force

If you do not have the hash, leave MDNA_FILAMENT_DATASET_SHA256 unset and run without checksum verification.