diff --git a/src/api/routers/map.py b/src/api/routers/map.py
index d53cc24..a657b41 100644
--- a/src/api/routers/map.py
+++ b/src/api/routers/map.py
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 """"Provide mapping router"""
+import logging
 from pathlib import Path
 
 from cool_seq_tool.schemas import AnnotationLayer
@@ -45,6 +46,8 @@
     prefix="/api/v1", tags=["mappings"], responses={404: {"description": "Not found"}}
 )
 
+_logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 
 @router.post(path="/map/{urn}", status_code=200, response_model=ScoresetMapping)
 @with_mavedb_score_set
@@ -57,7 +60,7 @@ async def map_scoreset(urn: str, store_path: Path | None = None) -> JSONResponse
     try:
         metadata = get_scoreset_metadata(urn, store_path)
         records = get_scoreset_records(metadata, True, store_path)
-        metadata = patch_target_sequence_type(metadata, records)
+        metadata = patch_target_sequence_type(metadata, records, force=False)
     except ScoresetNotSupportedError as e:
         return JSONResponse(
             content=ScoresetMapping(
diff --git a/src/api/server_main.py b/src/api/server_main.py
index 0df2a50..cbff216 100644
--- a/src/api/server_main.py
+++ b/src/api/server_main.py
@@ -1,13 +1,26 @@
 """FastAPI server file"""
+import logging
+
 import uvicorn
 from fastapi import FastAPI
 
 from api.routers import map
+from dcd_mapping import dcd_mapping_version
+
+logging.basicConfig(
+    format="%(levelname)s:%(name)s:%(message)s",
+    level=logging.INFO,
+    force=True,
+)
+_logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 app = FastAPI()
 
 app.include_router(map.router)
 
+msg = f"Starting DCD Mapping server v{dcd_mapping_version})"
+_logger.info(msg)
+
 
 # If the application is not already being run within a uvicorn server, start uvicorn here.
 if __name__ == "__main__":
diff --git a/src/dcd_mapping/align.py b/src/dcd_mapping/align.py
index 7f54b41..18325d5 100644
--- a/src/dcd_mapping/align.py
+++ b/src/dcd_mapping/align.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import os
 import subprocess
 import tempfile
+from collections.abc import Mapping
 from pathlib import Path
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
@@ -19,7 +20,7 @@
     ScoresetNotSupportedError,
 )
 from dcd_mapping.lookup import get_chromosome_identifier, get_gene_location
-from dcd_mapping.mavedb_data import LOCAL_STORE_PATH
+from dcd_mapping.mavedb_data import LOCAL_STORE_PATH, patch_target_sequence_type
 from dcd_mapping.resource_utils import http_download
 from dcd_mapping.schemas import (
     AlignmentResult,
@@ -441,7 +442,7 @@ def parse_cdot_mapping(cdot_mapping: dict, silent: bool) -> AlignmentResult:
 
 def build_alignment_result(
     metadata: ScoresetMetadata, silent: bool
-) -> dict[str, AlignmentResult | None]:
+) -> Mapping[str, AlignmentResult | None]:
     # NOTE: Score set must contain all accession-based target genes or all sequence-based target genes
     # This decision was made because it is most efficient to run BLAT all together, so the alignment function
     # works on an entire score set rather than per target gene.
@@ -462,7 +463,30 @@ def build_alignment_result(
             score_set_type = "sequence"
 
     if score_set_type == "sequence":
-        alignment_result = align(metadata, silent)
+        try:
+            alignment_result = align(metadata, silent)
+        except AlignmentError as e:
+            failed_at_nucleotide_level = any(
+                target_gene.target_sequence_type == TargetSequenceType.DNA
+                for target_gene in metadata.target_genes.values()
+            )
+
+            if failed_at_nucleotide_level:
+                msg = f"BLAT alignment failed for {metadata.urn} at the nucleotide level. This alignment will be retried at the protein level."
+                _logger.warning(msg)
+            else:
+                raise AlignmentError from e
+
+            # So long as force=True, the content of the records dict is irrelevant.
+            try:
+                alignment_result = align(
+                    patch_target_sequence_type(metadata, {}, force=True), silent
+                )
+            except AlignmentError as e2:
+                msg = f"BLAT alignment failed for {metadata.urn} at the protein level after failing at the nucleotide level."
+                _logger.error(msg)
+                raise AlignmentError(msg) from e2
+
     else:
         alignment_result = fetch_alignment(metadata, silent)
 
diff --git a/src/dcd_mapping/main.py b/src/dcd_mapping/main.py
index dac25d4..bcb3864 100644
--- a/src/dcd_mapping/main.py
+++ b/src/dcd_mapping/main.py
@@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ async def map_scoreset_urn(
     try:
         metadata = get_scoreset_metadata(urn, store_path)
         records = get_scoreset_records(metadata, silent, store_path)
-        metadata = patch_target_sequence_type(metadata, records)
+        metadata = patch_target_sequence_type(metadata, records, force=False)
     except ScoresetNotSupportedError as e:
         _emit_info(f"Score set not supported: {e}", silent, logging.ERROR)
         final_output = write_scoreset_mapping_to_json(
diff --git a/src/dcd_mapping/mavedb_data.py b/src/dcd_mapping/mavedb_data.py
index b3510b4..1dad2b2 100644
--- a/src/dcd_mapping/mavedb_data.py
+++ b/src/dcd_mapping/mavedb_data.py
@@ -326,21 +326,41 @@ def get_scoreset_records(
 
 
 def patch_target_sequence_type(
-    metadata: ScoresetMetadata, records: dict
+    metadata: ScoresetMetadata, records: dict, force: bool = False
 ) -> ScoresetMetadata:
     """If target sequence type is DNA but no nucleotide variants are defined, treat the target as if
     it were a protein level target.
     This avoids BLAT errors in cases where the target sequence was codon-optimized
     for a non-human organism
     """
+    patch_sequence_type = force or any(
+        target.target_sequence_type == TargetSequenceType.DNA
+        and not any(record.hgvs_nt for record in records.get(target_label, []))
+        for target_label, target in metadata.target_genes.items()
+    )
+
+    if not patch_sequence_type:
+        msg = f"Not patching target sequence type for {metadata.urn}. Either force=True (was {force}), or at least one target has nucleotide-level variants."
+        _logger.debug(msg)
+        return metadata
+
     for target_label, target in metadata.target_genes.items():
-        if target.target_sequence_type == TargetSequenceType.DNA and not any(
-            record.hgvs_nt for record in records.get(target_label, [])
-        ):
-            msg = f"Changing target sequence type for {metadata.urn} target {target_label} from DNA to protein because target only has protein-level variants"
-            _logger.info(msg)
-            target.target_sequence = _get_protein_sequence(target.target_sequence)
-            target.target_sequence_type = TargetSequenceType.PROTEIN
+        if not target.target_sequence:
+            msg = f"Cannot patch target sequence type for {metadata.urn} target {target_label} because no target sequence is available."
+            _logger.debug(msg)
+            continue
+
+        if target.target_gene_category != "protein_coding":
+            msg = f"Cannot patch target sequence type for {metadata.urn} target {target_label} because target gene category is {target.target_gene_category}, not protein_coding."
+            _logger.debug(msg)
+            continue
+
+        msg = f"Changing target sequence type for {metadata.urn} target {target_label} from DNA to protein. (force was {force})."
+        _logger.info(msg)
+
+        target.target_sequence = _get_protein_sequence(target.target_sequence)
+        target.target_sequence_type = TargetSequenceType.PROTEIN
+
     return metadata
 
 
diff --git a/src/dcd_mapping/transcripts.py b/src/dcd_mapping/transcripts.py
index 00080d3..9ec4a7a 100644
--- a/src/dcd_mapping/transcripts.py
+++ b/src/dcd_mapping/transcripts.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """Select best reference sequence."""
 import logging
 import re
+from collections.abc import Mapping
 
 from Bio.Data.CodonTable import IUPACData
 from Bio.Seq import Seq
@@ -345,7 +346,7 @@ async def select_transcript(
 async def select_transcripts(
     scoreset_metadata: ScoresetMetadata,
     records: dict[str, list[ScoreRow]],
-    align_results: dict[str, AlignmentResult | None],
+    align_results: Mapping[str, AlignmentResult | None],
 ) -> dict[str, TxSelectResult | Exception | None]:
     """Select appropriate human reference sequence for each target in a score set.
     :param scoreset_metadata: Metadata for score set from MaveDB API
diff --git a/src/dcd_mapping/vrs_map.py b/src/dcd_mapping/vrs_map.py
index db81d57..18642ff 100644
--- a/src/dcd_mapping/vrs_map.py
+++ b/src/dcd_mapping/vrs_map.py
@@ -842,6 +842,7 @@ def _construct_vrs_allele(
 ) -> Allele | Haplotype:
     alleles: list[Allele] = []
     for hgvs_string in hgvs_strings:
+        _logger.info("Processing HGVS string: %s", hgvs_string)
         allele = translate_hgvs_to_vrs(hgvs_string)
 
         if pre_map: