Cellosaurus MCP Server

[![Tests][badge-tests]][tests] [![Documentation][badge-docs]][documentation]

[badge-tests]: https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/biocontext-ai/unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp/test.yaml?branch=main [badge-docs]: https://img.shields.io/readthedocs/unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp

An unofficial Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for the SIB Cellosaurus cell line knowledge resource.

About Cellosaurus

Cellosaurus is a comprehensive knowledge resource on cell lines developed by the CALIPHO group at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. It provides detailed information about:

• Immortalized cell lines used in biomedical research
• Cell line characteristics, genetics, and metadata
• Cross-references to databases and publications
• STR profiles for authentication
• Disease associations and tissue origins

License Notice: The Cellosaurus database is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. When using data from Cellosaurus, please provide appropriate attribution to the Cellosaurus team and cite their work.

Features

This MCP server provides the following tools for accessing Cellosaurus data:

Core Tools

• `search_cell_lines`: Search for cell lines using flexible Solr syntax
• `get_cell_line_info`: Get detailed information about a specific cell line by accession
• `get_release_info`: Get current database version and statistics

Specialized Search Tools

• `find_cell_lines_by_disease`: Find cell lines associated with specific diseases
• `find_cell_lines_by_tissue`: Find cell lines derived from specific tissues/organs
• `list_available_fields`: Get all available data fields and their descriptions

Example Queries

# Search for HeLa cell lines
search_cell_lines(query="id:HeLa", fields=["id", "ac", "ox", "di"])

# Find liver cancer cell lines
find_cell_lines_by_disease(disease="hepatocellular carcinoma", species="human")

# Find all liver-derived cell lines
find_cell_lines_by_tissue(tissue="liver", species="human")

# Get detailed info for a specific cell line
get_cell_line_info(accession="CVCL_0030", fields=["id", "str", "karyotype"])

Installation

You need to have Python 3.11 or newer installed on your system.

Option 1: Using uvx (recommended)

uvx cellosaurus_mcp

Option 2: MCP Client Configuration

Add to your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cellosaurus": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["cellosaurus_mcp"],
      "env": {
        "UV_PYTHON": "3.11"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option 3: Direct Installation

pip install cellosaurus_mcp

Contact

If you found a bug, please use the [issue tracker][].

Citation

If this MCP server is useful to your research, please cite it as below.

@article{BioContext_AI_Kuehl_Schaub_2025,
  title={BioContextAI is a community hub for agentic biomedical systems},
  url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02900-9},
  urldate = {2025-11-06},
  doi={10.1038/s41587-025-02900-9},
  year = {2025},
  month = nov,
  journal={Nature Biotechnology},
  publisher={Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
  author={Kuehl, Malte and Schaub, Darius P. and Carli, Francesco and Heumos, Lukas and Hellmig, Malte and Fernández-Zapata, Camila and Kaiser, Nico and Schaul, Jonathan and Kulaga, Anton and Usanov, Nikolay and Koutrouli, Mikaela and Ergen, Can and Palla, Giovanni and Krebs, Christian F. and Panzer, Ulf and Bonn, Stefan and Lobentanzer, Sebastian and Saez-Rodriguez, Julio and Puelles, Victor G.},
  year={2025},
  month=nov,
  language={en},
}

[uv]: https://github.com/astral-sh/uv [issue tracker]: https://github.com/biocontext-ai/unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp/issues [tests]: https://github.com/biocontext-ai/unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp/actions/workflows/test.yaml [documentation]: https://unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp.readthedocs.io [changelog]: https://unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp.readthedocs.io/en/latest/changelog.html [api documentation]: https://unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html [pypi]: https://pypi.org/project/unofficial-cellosaurus-mcp