def read_prot(filepath):
    """
    This function accepts the filepath of a protein to align, ignores the first line
    (proceeded by '>' char), strips newlines, and returns the protein as a single string.
    """
    seq = ""
    with open(filepath) as f:
        for line in f:
            if not line.startswith(">"):
                seq += (line.rstrip())

    return seq