BioRuby is a collection of open-source Ruby code, comprising classes for computational molecular biology and bioinformatics.

[1] BioRuby is released under the GNU GPL version 2 or Ruby licence[2] and is one of a number of Bio* projects, designed to reduce code duplication.

[5][6] The BioRuby project was first started in 2000 by Toshiaki Katayama as a Ruby implementation of similar bioinformatics packages such as BioPerl and BioPython.

The initial release of version 0.1 was frequently updated by contributors both informally and at organised “hackathon” events; in June 2005, BioRuby was funded by IPA as an Exploratory Software Project,[7] culminating with the release of version 1.0.0 in February 2006.

[8] Between 2009 and 2012, BioRuby was the focus of a number of Google Summer of Code projects to improve the codebase.