diff --git a/pkgs/applications/science/biology/tandem-aligner/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/tandem-aligner/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f74ba9d2e443
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/applications/science/biology/tandem-aligner/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,56 @@
+{ lib
+, stdenv
+, fetchFromGitHub
+, cmake
+, zlib
+}:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation {
+  pname = "TandemAligner";
+  version = "unstable-2022-09-17";
+
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = "seryrzu";
+    repo = "tandem_aligner";
+    rev = "ac6004f108ad20477045f4d0b037d96051a9df70";
+    hash = "sha256-iMDj1HZ8LzmZckuAM3lbG3eSJSd/5JGVA6SBs7+AgX8=";
+  };
+
+  sourceRoot = "source/tandem_aligner";
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ cmake ];
+
+  buildInputs = [ zlib ];
+
+  installPhase = ''
+    runHook preInstall
+    mkdir -p $out/bin
+    cp src/projects/tandem_aligner/tandem_aligner $out/bin
+    runHook postInstall
+  '';
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
+  # adapted from target test_launch in Makefile
+  checkPhase = ''
+    runHook preCheck
+    mkdir -p $TMPDIR/test_launch
+    src/projects/tandem_aligner/tandem_aligner \
+      --first $src/tandem_aligner/test_dataset/first.fasta \
+      --second $src/tandem_aligner/test_dataset/second.fasta \
+      -o $TMPDIR/test_launch \
+      --debug
+    grep -q "Thank you for using TandemAligner!" $TMPDIR/test_launch/tandem_aligner.log
+    diff $TMPDIR/test_launch/cigar.txt $src/tandem_aligner/test_dataset/true_cigar.txt
+    runHook postCheck
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "A parameter-free algorithm for sequence alignment";
+    homepage = "https://github.com/seryrzu/tandem_aligner";
+    license = lib.licenses.bsd3;
+    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ amesgen ];
+    platforms = lib.platforms.linux;
+    mainProgram = "tandem_aligner";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index e51893cd34ce..8783c0d20f71 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -36014,6 +36014,8 @@ with pkgs;
 
   svaba = callPackage ../applications/science/biology/svaba { };
 
+  tandem-aligner = callPackage ../applications/science/biology/tandem-aligner { };
+
   tebreak = callPackage ../applications/science/biology/tebreak { };
 
   treemix = callPackage ../applications/science/biology/treemix { };