papercrane
§ Get started

Getting started in 5 minutes.

Five steps from a fresh account to a ranked list of designs ready for the wet lab. No installs — every model runs on our infrastructure.

Step 01

Sign up

Paper Crane is in private beta. Create an account at papercrane.bio/signup and you'll receive an invite link once your beta access is approved — usually within a business day.

Already approved? Skip ahead and sign in at app.papercrane.bio.

Step 02

Pick a target

Open New campaign and tell Paper Crane what you want to bind. The fastest path is a four-character RCSB PDB ID; you can also drag in a local .pdb or .cif file — AlphaFold structures and cryo-EM models both work.

bash
# Or via the API
curl https://api.papercrane.bio/v1/targets \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PAPERCRANE_KEY" \
  -d '{ "pdb_id": "2LGV" }'

Step 03

Choose hotspots

The structure loads into an in-browser Mol* viewer. Click residues on the surface to mark them as hotspots — the backbone-design models will steer interfaces toward the patch you select.

Three to six contiguous residues is a good starting point. Hotspots are stored as chain-prefixed residue IDs:

json
{
  "hotspots": ["A47", "A52", "A55"]
}

Step 04

Submit a job

Pick a tool from the catalog (BindCraft is a strong default for first-time users), set the number of designs, and hit Submit. Jobs queue immediately and stream progress to the dashboard.

bash
curl https://api.papercrane.bio/v1/jobs \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PAPERCRANE_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "tool": "bindcraft",
    "target_pdb": "2LGV",
    "hotspots": ["A47","A52","A55"],
    "n_designs": 100
  }'

Step 05

Browse results

When the campaign finishes, designs are ranked by ipSAE — our default interface confidence score — alongside ipTM, pLDDT, and pAE. Sort, filter, and inspect each design in the same Mol* viewer you used to set hotspots.

Ready to order? Export your shortlist as FASTA for synthesis or CIF for structural follow-up.

bash
# Export top-10 designs as FASTA
curl https://api.papercrane.bio/v1/jobs/$JOB_ID/export?format=fasta&top=10 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $PAPERCRANE_KEY" \
  -o designs.fasta
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