Nucleus content is made available under different licenses depending on its type. All licenses are permissive and compatible with one another, so material can move freely between documentation, designs, and code without licensing conflicts. These licenses apply across Nucleus’s sites and repositories (see “Where does Nucleus content live?” in our FAQ), even where a particular page or file is not explicitly marked with or linked to its applicable license.
| Component | License | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Intellectual Content | CERN-OHL-P-2.0 | Cell designs, protocols, methods, formulations, and sequence maps |
| Software Code | MIT | CDK and source code tools for data analysis and other research support |
| Data & Documentation | CC-BY-4.0 | Narrative documentation, figures, datasets, and characterization data |
| Biological Materials | OpenMTA | DNA constructs, DNA parts, and other physical biological materials |
DevNotes. A single DevNote can carry more than one license, since its content may span multiple categories above — for example, narrative text under CC-BY-4.0 alongside a module design under CERN-OHL-P-2.0. See our FAQ for details on how this applies to patented or IP-encumbered contributions.
Physical materials. The Nucleus plasmid collection is available upon request to build@bnext.bio under the OpenMTA. Onboarding onto AddGene is in progress, expected September 2026.
For questions on contribution ownership, patents, and what the OpenMTA does and doesn’t cover, see our FAQ.