unzipy

Single-molecule force spectroscopy and nonequilibrium statistical physics in Python.

unzipy collects the analysis methods used for optical- and magnetic-tweezers pulling experiments on nucleic-acid hairpins, as a tested, vectorised, importable library:

• polymer elasticity (worm-like chain with Bouchiat correction, extensible WLC, freely jointed chain);
• free-energy estimation from work (Jarzynski with bias correction, Bennett acceptance ratio, Crooks fluctuation theorem, dissipated work), for position-controlled and force-controlled pulling;
• recovery of folding free energies at zero force by subtracting trap, handle and molecule stretching (effective-stiffness method and a full elastic-model fit);
• unzipping analysis: force–distance-curve alignment, rupture-force rates, event detection, equilibrium force–distance curves from sequence energies;
• nearest-neighbour hairpin energies, free-energy landscapes and a stochastic pulling simulation.

Status: alpha — the API may still change before 1.0.

Install

pip install unzipy

Requires Python ≥ 3.10, numpy ≥ 2.0 and scipy ≥ 1.13. Optional extras: unzipy[fast] (numba, faster curve alignment), unzipy[plot] (matplotlib), for example pip install "unzipy[fast,plot]".

Quick start

import numpy as np
from unzipy.polymer import wlc_extension
from unzipy.fluctuation import bennett, bennett_error

x = wlc_extension(5.0, p=50.0)  # relative extension of a WLC at 5 pN
rng = np.random.default_rng(0)
w_f, w_r = (
    rng.normal(7, 2, 500),
    rng.normal(-3, 2, 500),
)  # work values (kT): dG = 5 kT
print(
    bennett(w_f, w_r), "+/-", bennett_error(w_f, w_r)
)  # free energy from forward + reverse work

Conventions: forces in pN, lengths in nm, energies in kT (kcal/mol where stated), temperature 25 °C unless passed. Work is the work done on the system. Molecules are always parametrised by their stem length and loop length (or their sequence): nothing assumes a particular hairpin.

A command-line interface covers the common workflows (unzipy --help). See docs/guide.md for workflows and docs/methods.md for the methods, references and how each is validated; examples/quickstart.py is a runnable tour.

Validation

See docs/methods.md.

Contributing, license, citation

Issues and pull requests are welcome; see CONTRIBUTING.md. Released under the MIT license.

Citing

If you use unzipy in your work, please cite it using CITATION.cff (GitHub's "Cite this repository" button gives BibTeX and APA).