diff --git a/backend/init.sql b/backend/init.sql
index 5d505c5e..02b29458 100644
--- a/backend/init.sql
+++ b/backend/init.sql
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 -- Generated columns:
 -- https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/ddl-generated-columns.html
 
+CREATE EXTENSION pg_trgm; -- for trigram matching fuzzy search similarity() func
+
 /*
  * Species Table
  */
@@ -28,8 +30,8 @@ CREATE TABLE proteins (
     description text, 
     length integer, -- length of amino acid sequence
     mass numeric, -- mass in amu/daltons
-    content bytea, -- stored markdown for the protein article (TODO: consider having a limit to how big this can be)
-    refs bytea, -- bibtex references mentioned in the content/article
+    content text, -- stored markdown for the protein article (TODO: consider having a limit to how big this can be)
+    refs text, -- bibtex references mentioned in the content/article
     species_id integer NOT NULL,
     thumbnail bytea, -- thumbnail image of the protein in base64 format
     FOREIGN KEY (species_id) REFERENCES species(id) ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE
diff --git a/backend/src/api/protein.py b/backend/src/api/protein.py
index f35f9a3e..2791af40 100644
--- a/backend/src/api/protein.py
+++ b/backend/src/api/protein.py
@@ -164,10 +164,6 @@ def get_protein_entry(protein_name: str):
                 ) = only_returned_entry
 
                 # if byte arrays are present, decode them into a string
-                if content is not None:
-                    content = bytea_to_str(content)
-                if refs is not None:
-                    refs = bytea_to_str(refs)
                 if thumbnail is not None:
                     thumbnail = bytea_to_str(thumbnail)
 
@@ -263,8 +259,8 @@ def upload_protein_entry(body: UploadBody, req: Request):
                     body.description,
                     pdb.num_amino_acids,
                     pdb.mass_daltons,
-                    str_to_bytea(body.content),
-                    str_to_bytea(body.refs),
+                    body.content,
+                    body.refs,
                     body.species_name,
                 ],
             )
@@ -310,7 +306,7 @@ def edit_protein_entry(body: EditBody, req: Request):
                 db.execute(
                     """UPDATE proteins SET content = %s WHERE name = %s""",
                     [
-                        str_to_bytea(body.new_content),
+                        body.new_content,
                         body.old_name if not name_changed else body.new_name,
                     ],
                 )
@@ -319,7 +315,7 @@ def edit_protein_entry(body: EditBody, req: Request):
                 db.execute(
                     """UPDATE proteins SET refs = %s WHERE name = %s""",
                     [
-                        str_to_bytea(body.new_refs),
+                        body.new_refs,
                         body.old_name if not name_changed else body.new_name,
                     ],
                 )
diff --git a/backend/src/api/search.py b/backend/src/api/search.py
index b35488d7..5f0bc15e 100644
--- a/backend/src/api/search.py
+++ b/backend/src/api/search.py
@@ -74,41 +74,61 @@ def get_descriptions(protein_names: list[str]):
 
 
 def gen_sql_filters(
+    species_table: str,
+    proteins_table: str,
     species_filter: str | None,
     length_filter: RangeFilter | None = None,
     mass_filter: RangeFilter | None = None,
 ) -> str:
     filters = [
-        category_where_clause("species.name", species_filter),
-        range_where_clause("proteins.length", length_filter),
-        range_where_clause("proteins.mass", mass_filter),
+        category_where_clause(f"{species_table}.name", species_filter),
+        range_where_clause(f"{proteins_table}.length", length_filter),
+        range_where_clause(f"{proteins_table}.mass", mass_filter),
     ]
     return " AND " + combine_where_clauses(filters) if any(filters) else ""
 
 
 @router.post("/search/proteins", response_model=SearchProteinsResults)
 def search_proteins(body: SearchProteinsBody):
-    title_query = sanitize_query(body.query)
+    text_query = sanitize_query(body.query)
     with Database() as db:
         try:
             filter_clauses = gen_sql_filters(
-                body.species_filter, body.length_filter, body.mass_filter
+                "species",
+                "proteins_scores",
+                body.species_filter,
+                body.length_filter,
+                body.mass_filter,
             )
-            entries_query = """SELECT proteins.name, 
-                                      proteins.description, 
-                                      proteins.length, 
-                                      proteins.mass, 
+            threshold = 0
+            score_filter = (
+                f"(proteins_scores.name_score >= {threshold} OR proteins_scores.desc_score >= {threshold} OR  proteins_scores.content_score >= {threshold})"  # show only the scores > 0
+                if len(text_query) > 0
+                else "TRUE"  # show all scores
+            )
+            # cursed shit, edit this at some point
+            # note that we have a sub query since postgres can't do where clauses on aliased tables
+            entries_query = """SELECT proteins_scores.name, 
+                                      proteins_scores.description, 
+                                      proteins_scores.length, 
+                                      proteins_scores.mass, 
                                       species.name,
-                                      proteins.thumbnail
-                                FROM proteins 
-                                JOIN species ON species.id = proteins.species_id 
-                                WHERE proteins.name ILIKE %s"""
+                                      proteins_scores.thumbnail
+                                FROM (SELECT *, 
+                                             similarity(name, %s) as name_score, 
+                                             similarity(description, %s) as desc_score,
+                                             similarity(content, %s) as content_score
+                                     FROM proteins) as proteins_scores
+                                JOIN species ON species.id = proteins_scores.species_id
+                                WHERE {} {}
+                                ORDER BY (proteins_scores.name_score*4 + proteins_scores.desc_score*2 + proteins_scores.content_score) DESC;
+                                """.format(
+                score_filter, filter_clauses
+            )  # numbers in order by correspond to weighting
             log.warn(filter_clauses)
             entries_result = db.execute_return(
-                sanitize_query(entries_query + filter_clauses),
-                [
-                    f"%{title_query}%",
-                ],
+                sanitize_query(entries_query),
+                [text_query, text_query, text_query],
             )
             if entries_result is not None:
                 return SearchProteinsResults(
diff --git a/galaxy/.gitignore b/galaxy/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6af1f0bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/galaxy/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+master_venom_galaxy/
\ No newline at end of file