The Molecular Biology Toolbox at primerdigital.com/tools/ is an independent, free academic resource maintained by Prof. Ruslan Kalendar (University of Helsinki) and openly available to the global research community since 2024. The toolbox is developed and distributed independently of any commercial activity; it has no registration, no usage limits, and no paid features.
All web tools available at primerdigital.com/tools/ are free to use for everyone — including academic, research, clinical, and commercial users without registration, payment, or usage limits. No login is required.
The software is released as free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPL-3.0). The complete source code (HTML, JavaScript, CSS) is publicly available on GitHub. Under this licence you are free to:
- Use the tools online or offline, for any purpose, including commercial use.
- Study the source code and verify how every result is computed.
- Modify the code and create derivative works.
- Redistribute the original or your modified version, provided you keep it under the GPL-3.0, retain the copyright notice, and make the corresponding source code available.
No prior permission from the author is required for any of the above. The full, legally binding text is the GPL-3.0 itself.
github.com/rkalendar/PCRtools Full licence text (LICENSE.txt) GPL-3.0 at gnu.org
Copyright © Ruslan Kalendar. Licensed under the GNU GPL v3.0.
The full implementation including all primer-design algorithms, scoring functions, thermodynamic parameters, and the user interface is available in the public GitHub repository. This enables:
- Independent verification of all results by reviewers and users.
- Local deployment for personal or institutional use — clone the repository and open
sites/index.htmlin any modern browser to run the entire toolbox offline, without any external server. - Issue reporting and feature requests via the GitHub issue tracker.
- Collaboration and reuse of individual modules in third-party projects under the terms of the GPL-3.0 — the author is glad to hear about it (see Contact).
All computations run locally in the user's browser; user sequences are never transmitted to any server. See the Data & Privacy section of the documentation for details.
For a full list of recommended citations, see the References & Citation page.
All tools run entirely in the user's web browser using client-side JavaScript. No installation, plug-ins, or server-side processing is required. Tested on:
- Google Chrome 148+
- Mozilla Firefox 151+
- Microsoft Edge 148+
- Apple Safari 26+
Works on Windows, macOS, Linux, ChromeOS, and modern mobile browsers. A minimum of 4 GB of RAM is recommended for genome-scale repeat analysis and large multiplex panel design.
The tools are provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. The author makes no representations about the suitability of these tools for any particular purpose.
The author shall not be held liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the use of these tools.
- All computations are performed locally in your browser (client-side JavaScript); your sequences are never sent to our servers.
- Optional retrieval functions (NCBI/Ensembl) send requests directly to those external services only when you click"Retrieve".
- If you work with sensitive or proprietary sequences, prefer manual FASTA upload and use an offline/local copy of the tools where applicable.
For questions regarding licensing, scientific use, or collaboration:
- Author: Prof. Ruslan Kalendar
- Bug reports & feature requests: GitHub Issues