diff --git a/var/spack/packages/bowtie2/bowtie2-2.5.patch b/var/spack/packages/bowtie2/bowtie2-2.5.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..290be39c73
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/packages/bowtie2/bowtie2-2.5.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+--- Makefile	2015-02-26 10:50:00.000000000 -0800
++++ Makefile.new	2015-07-29 18:03:59.891357399 -0700
+@@ -22,10 +22,10 @@
+ #
+ 
+ INC =
+-GCC_PREFIX = $(shell dirname `which gcc`)
++GCC_PREFIX =
+ GCC_SUFFIX =
+-CC = $(GCC_PREFIX)/gcc$(GCC_SUFFIX)
+-CPP = $(GCC_PREFIX)/g++$(GCC_SUFFIX)
++CC = cc 
++CPP = c++
+ CXX = $(CPP)
+ HEADERS = $(wildcard *.h)
+ BOWTIE_MM = 1
diff --git a/var/spack/packages/bowtie2/package.py b/var/spack/packages/bowtie2/package.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..339aab6598
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/packages/bowtie2/package.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+from spack import *
+from glob import glob
+class Bowtie2(Package):
+    """Description"""
+    homepage = "bowtie-bio.sourceforge.net/bowtie2/index.shtml"
+    version('2.2.5','51fa97a862d248d7ee660efc1147c75f', url = "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/bowtie-bio/bowtie2/2.2.5/bowtie2-2.2.5-source.zip")
+
+    patch('bowtie2-2.5.patch',when='@2.2.5', level=0)
+
+    def install(self, spec, prefix):
+        make()
+        mkdirp(prefix.bin)
+        for bow in glob("bowtie2*"):
+            install(bow, prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-align-l',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-align-s',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-build',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-build-l',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-build-s',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-inspect',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-inspect-l',prefix.bin)
+        # install('bowtie2-inspect-s',prefix.bin)
+
diff --git a/var/spack/packages/samtools/package.py b/var/spack/packages/samtools/package.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..72900398d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/packages/samtools/package.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+from spack import *
+
+class Samtools(Package):
+    """SAM Tools provide various utilities for manipulating alignments in the SAM format, 
+       including sorting, merging, indexing and generating
+       alignments in a per-position format"""
+
+    homepage = "www.htslib.org"
+    version('1.2','988ec4c3058a6ceda36503eebecd4122',url = "https://github.com/samtools/samtools/releases/download/1.2/samtools-1.2.tar.bz2")
+
+    depends_on("zlib")
+    depends_on("mpc")
+    parallel=False
+    patch("samtools1.2.patch",level=0)
+
+    def install(self, spec, prefix):
+        make("prefix=%s" % prefix, "install")
+
diff --git a/var/spack/packages/samtools/samtools1.2.patch b/var/spack/packages/samtools/samtools1.2.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ead3ab4e2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/var/spack/packages/samtools/samtools1.2.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+--- Makefile	2015-02-03 08:27:34.000000000 -0800
++++ Makefile.new	2015-07-21 10:38:27.881406892 -0700
+@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
+ CFLAGS   = -g -Wall -O2
+ LDFLAGS  =
+ LDLIBS   =
+-DFLAGS=     -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_CURSES_LIB=1
++DFLAGS=     -D_FILE_OFFSET_BITS=64 -D_LARGEFILE64_SOURCE -D_CURSES_LIB=0
+ LOBJS=      bam_aux.o bam.o bam_import.o sam.o \
+             sam_header.o bam_plbuf.o
+ AOBJS=      bam_index.o bam_plcmd.o sam_view.o \
+@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
+             faidx.o stats.o stats_isize.o bam_flags.o bam_split.o \
+             bam_tview.o bam_tview_curses.o bam_tview_html.o bam_lpileup.o
+ INCLUDES=   -I. -I$(HTSDIR)
+-LIBCURSES=  -lcurses # -lXCurses
++#LIBCURSES=  -lcurses # -lXCurses
+ 
+ prefix      = /usr/local
+ exec_prefix = $(prefix)