Unmc APIaps.unmc.edu ↗
Search the APD6 database of antimicrobial peptides, retrieve detailed peptide records, and predict physicochemical properties of amino acid sequences via 3 endpoints.
What is the Unmc API?
This API provides access to the APD6 Antimicrobial Peptide Database through 3 endpoints covering search, detailed record retrieval, and sequence prediction. Use search_peptides to query thousands of catalogued AMPs by name, source organism, activity, or sequence motif. Use get_peptide to pull full records including physicochemical properties and literature references. Use predict_peptide to calculate properties for any novel amino acid sequence.
curl -X POST 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/8dc7511b-87c3-48ad-b97b-1168f444ce45/search_peptides' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
"name": "LL-37",
"sort": "ID",
"length": "Any",
"structure": "Any",
"net_charge": "Any"
}'Search the APD6 database for antimicrobial peptides. Supports filtering by name, source organism, sequence content, and biological activity. Returns a list of matching peptides with their APD IDs, descriptions, sequences, and lengths. All filter parameters are optional; omitting all returns all peptides in the database.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| name | string | Peptide name or partial name to search for (e.g. 'LL-37', 'cathelicidin', 'human'). |
| sort | string | Sort order for results. |
| length | string | Filter by peptide length range. |
| activity | string | Comma-separated list of biological activities to filter by. Accepted values: antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, antiparasitic, anticancer, anti-hiv, anti-mrsa, anti-tb, antibiofilm, wound_healing, anti-inflammatory, chemotaxis, antioxidant, spermicidal, insecticidal, anti-endotoxin, anti-toxin, anti-diabetes, ion_channel, protease_inhibitors, nematocidal, bacteria_agglutinating, synergistic. |
| sequence | string | Amino acid sequence or motif to search for within peptide sequences (e.g. 'YGNGV', 'GLFD', 'CC'). |
| structure | string | Filter by 3D structure type. |
| net_charge | string | Filter by net charge. |
| source_organism | string | Source organism to filter by (e.g. 'Homo sapiens', 'Rana'). |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"results": "array of peptide summaries with apd_id, numeric_id, pdb_id, description, sequence, length",
"total_count": "integer"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"results": [
{
"apd_id": "AP00309",
"length": 27,
"pdb_id": "",
"sequence": "KSKEKIGKEFKRIVQRIKDFLRNLVPR",
"numeric_id": "00309",
"description": "Human KS-27 (natural AMPs; UCLL1; fragment of LL-37, cathelicidin, primates, mammals, animals)"
},
{
"apd_id": "AP00310",
"length": 37,
"pdb_id": "2K6O",
"sequence": "LLGDFFRKSKEKIGKEFKRIVQRIKDFLRNLVPRTES",
"numeric_id": "00310",
"description": "LL-37 (LL37; cell-penetrating; natural AMPs; cathelicidin; UCLL1; human; primates, mammals, animals; XXE, XXI, XXX; XXY; XXZ; BBBh2o,BBBm;BBMm,BBPP,BBN,BBL,BBrsg,BBacp;JJsn)"
}
],
"total_count": 52
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the Unmc API
Searching the AMP Catalog
The search_peptides endpoint accepts up to eight optional filter parameters — name, source_organism, sequence, activity, structure, net_charge, length, and sort — and returns an array of matching peptide summaries. Each result includes the apd_id, numeric_id, pdb_id, description, sequence, and length. Omitting all filters returns the full result set. The activity parameter accepts a comma-separated list of values such as antibacterial, antiviral, or antifungal, making it straightforward to narrow results to a specific therapeutic context.
Retrieving Full Peptide Records
Once you have an APD numeric ID from search results, get_peptide returns the complete record for that peptide. Response fields include title, apd_id, author, length, method, source, activity, sequence, reference, and name_class. The peptide_id input must be a numeric string and may be provided zero-padded to five digits (e.g., 00310) or without leading zeros. The reference field carries literature citations, and method describes how the peptide's structure was determined.
Predicting Properties for Novel Sequences
The predict_peptide endpoint accepts any amino acid sequence in standard one-letter codes and returns a known_amp boolean indicating whether the sequence matches an existing APD entry. For sequences not already catalogued, the response includes calculated physicochemical properties: net_charge, molecular_weight, molecular_formula, gravy (GRAVY hydrophobicity index), boman_index, rich_in (most abundant residue), and length. If the sequence is a known AMP, the response instead returns the matching apd_id for cross-referencing with get_peptide.
Coverage and Data Shape
All three endpoints reflect the APD6 dataset, which covers natural and synthetic antimicrobial peptides across bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and cancer cell targets. The source_organism filter on search_peptides accepts genus-level names such as Rana or full binomials like Homo sapiens. Sequence searches match exact motifs within the stored sequences, useful for identifying peptides containing conserved structural patterns like YGNGV or cysteine-rich motifs.
The Unmc API is a managed, monitored endpoint for aps.unmc.edu — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when aps.unmc.edu changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official aps.unmc.edu API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Identify all human-derived antimicrobial peptides by filtering
search_peptideswithsource_organism: 'Homo sapiens' - Retrieve the full literature reference and method details for a known AMP using
get_peptidewith its APD numeric ID - Screen a novel peptide candidate by submitting its amino acid sequence to
predict_peptideand checkingboman_indexandnet_charge - Find all peptides with antiviral activity by passing
activity: 'antiviral'tosearch_peptides - Locate peptides containing a specific sequence motif (e.g.,
GLFD) using thesequenceparameter insearch_peptides - Compare molecular weight and GRAVY score across candidate sequences before committing to synthesis
- Cross-reference a prediction result with the full APD record when
predict_peptidereturnsknown_amp: trueand anapd_id
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 100 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does aps.unmc.edu provide an official public developer API?+
What does `predict_peptide` return for a sequence that already exists in the database?+
known_amp is true, the response returns the matching apd_id and input_sequence but omits the calculated physicochemical fields (net_charge, molecular_weight, molecular_formula, gravy, boman_index). You can then pass the apd_id numeric portion to get_peptide to retrieve the full catalogued record.Can I filter `search_peptides` results by multiple activities at once?+
activity parameter accepts a comma-separated list, so you can pass values like antibacterial,antifungal to retrieve peptides annotated with any of those activities in a single request.Does the API return peptide 3D structural coordinates or PDB files?+
search_peptides endpoint includes a pdb_id field in results, and get_peptide includes structural metadata via the method field, but actual 3D coordinate data or PDB file content is not returned by any endpoint. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an endpoint that fetches coordinates from the RCSB PDB using the returned pdb_id.Is there a way to retrieve all peptides in the database without any filters?+
search_peptides with all filter parameters omitted returns results across the full catalog, up to the response limits. The total_count field in the response indicates how many records match. Pagination parameters are not currently exposed as inputs, so very large result sets may be truncated. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add offset or page-based pagination support.