lifesciences-genomics

name	lifesciences-genomics
description	Queries genomic databases (Ensembl, NCBI, HGNC) via MCP tools for gene lookup, variant annotation, orthology, and cross-database ID resolution. Falls back to curl when MCP is unavailable. This skill should be used when the user asks to \"annotate variants\", \"find orthologs\", \"map gene IDs\", \"analyze linkage disequilibrium\", or mentions gene symbols, ENSG IDs, HGNC identifiers, VEP annotation, LD analysis, HGVS notation, or DNA sequences. Use when this capability is needed.
metadata	{"author":"donbr"}

Genomics API Skills

Query genomic databases via MCP tools (primary) or curl (fallback).

Grounding Rule

All gene names, IDs, and annotations MUST come from API results. Do NOT provide gene information from training knowledge. If a query returns no results, report "No results found."

MCP Token Budgeting (slim Parameter)

All MCP tools in this skill support a slim parameter for token-efficient queries:

When to use slim=true:

• LOCATE phase: Fast candidate lists (returns ~20 tokens/entity vs ~115-300 tokens)
• Batch operations: Resolving multiple entities in a single turn
• Exploration: Quick overviews without full metadata

When to use slim=false (default):

• RETRIEVE phase: Need full metadata with cross-references
• Validation: Verifying detailed properties
• Graph persistence: Collecting complete entity records

Example:

# LOCATE: Find top 10 gene candidates (slim=true for speed)
Call `hgnc_search_genes` with: {"query": "TNF", "slim": true, "page_size": 10}
→ Returns minimal fields: ID, symbol, name only (~20 tokens each)

# RETRIEVE: Get full record for validation (slim=false, default)
Call `hgnc_get_gene` with: {"hgnc_id": "HGNC:11892"}
→ Returns complete metadata with cross-references (~115 tokens)

Impact: Using slim=true during LOCATE enables 5-10x more entities per LLM turn without context overflow.

Reference: This token budgeting pattern is detailed in reference/prior-art-api-patterns.md (Section 7.1).

LOCATE → RETRIEVE Patterns

Gene Resolution (HGNC — Start Here)

LOCATE: Search for gene by symbol or name

PRIMARY (MCP tool):

Call `hgnc_search_genes` with: {"query": "TP53"}
→ Returns candidates with HGNC IDs, symbols, names

FALLBACK (curl):

curl -s "https://rest.genenames.org/search/symbol/TP53" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" | jq '.response.docs[0] | {hgnc_id, symbol, name}'

RETRIEVE: Fetch full record by HGNC ID

PRIMARY (MCP tool):

Call `hgnc_get_gene` with: {"hgnc_id": "HGNC:11998"}
→ Returns: symbol, name, cross-references (UniProt, Ensembl, Entrez)

FALLBACK (curl):

curl -s "https://rest.genenames.org/fetch/hgnc_id/11998" \
  -H "Accept: application/json" | jq '.response.docs[0]'

Gene Metadata (Ensembl)

LOCATE: Resolve symbol to Ensembl ID

PRIMARY (MCP tool):

Call `ensembl_search_genes` with: {"query": "TP53", "species": "homo_sapiens"}
→ Returns Ensembl gene ID (ENSG...)

FALLBACK (curl):

curl -s "https://rest.ensembl.org/lookup/symbol/homo_sapiens/TP53?content-type=application/json" \
  | jq '{id, display_name}'

RETRIEVE: Get full gene metadata by Ensembl ID

PRIMARY (MCP tool):

Call `ensembl_get_gene` with: {"ensembl_id": "ENSG00000141510"}
→ Returns: biotype, description, location, transcripts

FALLBACK (curl):

curl -s "https://rest.ensembl.org/lookup/id/ENSG00000141510?expand=1&content-type=application/json" \
  | jq '{id, display_name, biotype, description, seq_region_name, start, end}'

Variant Annotation (Ensembl VEP)

No MCP tool — use curl directly:

LOCATE: Annotate variant by rsID

curl -s "https://rest.ensembl.org/vep/human/id/rs56116432?content-type=application/json" \
  | jq '.[0] | {most_severe_consequence, transcript_consequences: .transcript_consequences[:2]}'

RETRIEVE: Annotate by HGVS notation (batch via POST)

curl -s -X POST "https://rest.ensembl.org/vep/human/hgvs" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"hgvs_notations": ["ENST00000366667:c.803C>T"]}' \
  | jq '.[0].transcript_consequences[0] | {consequence_terms, sift_prediction, polyphen_prediction}'

Orthology (Ensembl)

No MCP tool — use curl directly:

LOCATE + RETRIEVE (single call returns both):

curl -s "https://rest.ensembl.org/homology/id/human/ENSG00000141510?type=orthologues&content-type=application/json" \
  | jq '.data[0].homologies[:5][] | {species: .target.species, gene_id: .target.id, perc_id: .target.perc_id}'

Cross-Database ID Resolution (Ensembl xrefs)

No MCP tool — use curl directly:

RETRIEVE: Get all cross-references for a gene (useful for verification)

curl -s "https://rest.ensembl.org/xrefs/id/ENSG00000141510?content-type=application/json" \
  | jq '.[] | select(.dbname | test("HGNC|UniProt|OMIM|RefSeq")) | {db: .dbname, id: .primary_id}'

Linkage Disequilibrium (Ensembl)

No MCP tool — use curl directly:

RETRIEVE: LD between two variants

curl -s "https://rest.ensembl.org/ld/human/pairwise/rs56116432/rs1042522?population_name=1000GENOMES:phase_3:EUR&content-type=application/json" \
  | jq '.[0] | {r2, d_prime}'

RETRIEVE: LD in genomic region

curl -s "https://rest.ensembl.org/ld/human/region/17:7668421..7687490/1000GENOMES:phase_3:EUR?content-type=application/json" \
  | jq '.[:3]'

NCBI E-utilities: Gene Search & Links

LOCATE: Search for gene

PRIMARY (MCP tool):

Call `entrez_search_genes` with: {"query": "TP53", "organism": "human"}
→ Returns Entrez gene IDs

FALLBACK (curl):

curl -s "https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esearch.fcgi?db=gene&term=TP53[sym]+AND+human[orgn]&retmode=json" \
  | jq '.esearchresult | {count, idlist}'

RETRIEVE: Get gene summary by Entrez ID

PRIMARY (MCP tool):

Call `entrez_get_gene` with: {"gene_id": "7157"}
→ Returns gene name, description, chromosome location

FALLBACK (curl):

curl -s "https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/esummary.fcgi?db=gene&id=7157&retmode=json" \
  | jq '.result["7157"] | {name: .name, description: .description, chromosome: .chromosome}'

RETRIEVE: Link gene to PubMed articles

PRIMARY (MCP tool):

Call `entrez_get_pubmed_links` with: {"gene_id": "7157"}
→ Returns linked PubMed article IDs

FALLBACK (curl):

curl -s "https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=gene&db=pubmed&id=7157&retmode=json" \
  | jq '.linksets[0].linksetdbs[] | select(.dbto=="pubmed") | {db: .dbto, count: (.links | length)}'

Quick Reference

Task	Pattern	MCP Tool (primary)	Curl Endpoint (fallback)
Resolve gene symbol	LOCATE	hgnc_search_genes	HGNC /search/{symbol}
Get gene metadata	RETRIEVE	hgnc_get_gene	HGNC /fetch/hgnc_id/{id}
Get Ensembl gene	RETRIEVE	ensembl_get_gene	Ensembl /lookup/id/{ENSG}
Annotate variant	LOCATE	(curl only)	Ensembl VEP /vep/:species/hgvs
Find orthologs	RETRIEVE	(curl only)	Ensembl /homology/id/:species/:id
Cross-reference IDs	RETRIEVE	(curl only)	Ensembl /xrefs/id/{ENSG}
Search NCBI Gene	LOCATE	entrez_search_genes	E-utilities /esearch.fcgi?db=gene
Link gene→PubMed	RETRIEVE	entrez_get_pubmed_links	E-utilities /elink.fcgi?dbfrom=gene&db=pubmed

ID Format Reference

Database	API Argument (bare)	Graph CURIE	Example
HGNC	HGNC:11998	HGNC:11998	(Same — HGNC includes prefix)
Ensembl	ENSG00000141510	ENSG00000141510	(No CURIE prefix needed)
NCBI/Entrez	7157	NCBIGene:7157	Bare numeric for API

Rate Limits

API	Limit	Notes
HGNC	10 req/s	No auth required
Ensembl	15 req/s	No auth required
NCBI	3 req/s	10 req/s with NCBI_API_KEY

Query Best Practices

Human-Centric Defaults

• Filter to human by default unless performing comparative genomics
• Use human[orgn] in NCBI searches, homo_sapiens for Ensembl
• Only omit organism filter when explicitly comparing across species (e.g., ortholog analysis)

Efficient Querying

• Use page_size=10 for exploration
• Use cross-reference endpoints to resolve IDs rather than multiple searches
• Prefer Ensembl IDs (ENSG*) for programmatic access — most APIs accept them

See Also

• lifesciences-graph-builder: Orchestrator for full Fuzzy-to-Fact protocol
• lifesciences-proteomics: UniProt, STRING, BioGRID protein endpoints

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