diff --git a/read_sequencer_package/read_in_FASTA.py b/read_sequencer_package/read_in_FASTA.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..21ec810870f43c1ca4144cce174f3566f7576d7c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/read_sequencer_package/read_in_FASTA.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+'''
+This function reads in FASTA files
+
+argument is file_path
+
+it returns a dictionary with the sequences
+
+
+'''
+
+
+import sys
+
+def read_in_fasta(file_path):
+    sequences = {}
+    f = open(file_path)
+    for line in f:
+        if line[0] == '>':
+            defline = line.srtip()
+            defline = defline.replace('>', '')
+        else:
+            if defline not in sequences:
+                sequences[defline] = ''
+            sequences[defline] += line.strip()
+    return sequences       
+