pith. sign in

arxiv: 2605.21522 · v1 · pith:MVXKTWTWnew · submitted 2026-05-19 · 🧬 q-bio.QM · cs.AI· cs.CE· cs.LG· stat.ML

Protein Thoughts: Interpretable Reasoning with Tree of Thoughts and Embedding-Space Flow Matching for Protein-Protein Interaction Discovery

Pith reviewed 2026-05-22 02:05 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 🧬 q-bio.QM cs.AIcs.CEcs.LGstat.ML
keywords protein-protein interactionsinterpretable reasoningtree of thoughtsflow matchingbinding predictioncomputational biologyvalue function
0
0 comments X

The pith

Protein Thoughts achieves mean best-binder rank of 11.2 on SHS148k by preserving four biological signals in a transparent value function and guiding Tree-of-Thoughts search.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper tries to establish that PPI discovery can be turned into an explicit reasoning process instead of an opaque ranking score. It decomposes binding evidence into four signals—sequence similarity for evolutionary relationships, structural complementarity for geometric fit, interface balance, and chemical compatibility—and keeps each contribution visible in a value function that supports both ranking and auditing. To handle large candidate sets, the system uses a language model to issue search directives that condition an entropy-regularized tree search, with flow matching applied when signals disagree on a candidate. If the approach works, biologists gain ranked predictions accompanied by traceable biochemical justifications rather than unexplained numbers. This matters because current methods leave users unable to judge whether a high score reflects real biology or dataset artifacts.

Core claim

The central claim is that reformulating PPI discovery as an interpretable search problem, with binding evidence decomposed into four biologically meaningful signals kept separate in a transparent value function, and navigated by hypothesis-guided entropy-regularized Tree-of-Thoughts search plus embedding-space flow matching for score disagreements, produces both stronger ranking performance and auditable predictions on the SHS148k benchmark.

What carries the argument

The transparent value function that preserves separate contributions from sequence similarity, structural complementarity, interface balance, and chemical compatibility while guiding an entropy-regularized Tree-of-Thoughts policy.

If this is right

  • True binders appear at mean rank 11.2 instead of 47.7, a 76 percent improvement over entropic tree search.
  • Binding prediction reaches 91.08 plus or minus 0.19 Micro-F1, outperforming prior PPI methods on the same dataset.
  • Each prediction carries an explicit trace of which biological signals contributed, allowing direct inspection.
  • Large candidate spaces are traversed efficiently by classifying proteins as high-priority, exploratory, or skippable and by pruning low-value branches.
  • Embedding flow matching resolves cases where signals disagree by transporting embeddings toward the binder manifold.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • The explicit reasoning traces could be used to generate targeted experimental hypotheses about which residues or structural features drive a particular interaction.
  • The same decomposition might be applied to related tasks such as predicting protein-small molecule or protein-DNA interactions if the signals generalize.
  • Combining the value function with new structural models could strengthen the geometric complementarity signal without retraining the entire system.
  • The framework invites tests on datasets containing many known non-binders to check whether the signals avoid learning spurious patterns.

Load-bearing premise

The four signals can be preserved in a transparent value function that reflects genuine biochemical insight rather than spurious correlations learned from the benchmark.

What would settle it

If the top-ranked predictions fail to validate in independent wet-lab experiments at rates higher than baseline methods, or if the individual signal contributions do not align with established biochemical mechanisms for well-studied protein pairs.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2605.21522 by Kingsley Yeon, Promit Ghosal, Xuefeng Liu.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: Protein Thoughts pipeline: hypothesis-guided entropy-regularized Tree-of-Thoughts search with embedding-space flow matching. (see Algorithm 1) A, Input proteins are encoded via ESM-2 into 480-dimensional embeddings eR, eL, from which interpretable features (cosine similarity, product statistics) are computed. B, Decomposed PPI scoring computes four interpretable metrics. Score tension (high variance across… view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: Hypothesis-guided entropy-regularized Tree of Thoughts (ToT) search with selective flow [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p007_2.png] view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: Hypothesis-conditioned embedding-space flow matching for PPI discovery. [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p010_3.png] view at source ↗
Figure 4
Figure 4. Figure 4: Virtual screening for SPOP (500 candidates). [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p013_4.png] view at source ↗
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: shows that flow pushes many decoys away from the binder manifold while improving a subset of candidates; incomplete separation indicates that larger-scale training data would further improve generalization [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p014_5.png] view at source ↗
Figure 6
Figure 6. Figure 6: SKEMPI v2 mutation prediction. Left: ROC for classifying stabilizing mutations. Right: Auxiliary flow head MSE shows low error across all four interpretable score channels. B.6 Hypothesis-Guided Entropy Regularized Tree of Thoughts Search Audit trail with explanations. The resulting search tree T provides a complete audit trail enriched with hypothesis explanations. Each node stores the full decomposed sco… view at source ↗
Figure 7
Figure 7. Figure 7: Visualization of the barnase–barstar complex (1BRS_A with 1BRS_B). Protein Thoughts [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p032_7.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) govern nearly all cellular processes, yet computational methods for identifying binding partners typically produce ranked predictions without mechanistic justification. This creates a fundamental barrier to adoption because biologists cannot assess whether predictions reflect genuine biochemical insight or spurious correlations. We present \textbf{Protein Thoughts}, a framework that reformulates PPI discovery as an interpretable search problem with explicit reasoning. The system decomposes binding evidence into four biologically meaningful signals: sequence similarity reflecting evolutionary relationships, structural complementarity capturing geometric fit, interface balance, and chemical compatibility encoding residue-level interactions. Rather than collapsing these signals into an opaque score, we preserve their individual contributions through a transparent value function that enables both ranking and auditing. To navigate large candidate spaces efficiently, we introduce hypothesis-guided entropy-regularized Tree-of-Thoughts search. A fine-tuned language model generates search directives from embedding-derived features, classifying candidates as high-priority, exploratory, or skippable. These directives condition a Boltzmann policy that balances exploitation with entropy-driven exploration, while hypothesis-aware pruning prevents premature abandonment of promising candidates. For candidates exhibiting score disagreement, hypothesis-conditioned embedding-space flow matching transports protein embeddings toward the binder manifold. On the SHS148k benchmark, Protein Thoughts achieves mean best-binder rank of 11.2 versus 47.7 for an entropic tree search baseline, a 76% improvement, and for binding prediction the trained value function achieves $91.08 \pm 0.19$ Micro-F1, outperforming existing PPI methods on the same dataset.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

3 major / 2 minor

Summary. The paper introduces Protein Thoughts, a framework reformulating PPI discovery as interpretable search via hypothesis-guided entropy-regularized Tree-of-Thoughts combined with embedding-space flow matching. Binding evidence is decomposed into four signals (sequence similarity, structural complementarity, interface balance, chemical compatibility) preserved in a transparent value function for ranking and auditing. A fine-tuned LM generates search directives conditioning a Boltzmann policy, with hypothesis-aware pruning and flow matching for score-disagreement cases. On SHS148k, it reports mean best-binder rank of 11.2 (vs. 47.7 baseline, 76% improvement) and trained value function Micro-F1 of 91.08 ± 0.19, outperforming prior PPI methods.

Significance. If the central claims hold after addressing methodological gaps, the work could meaningfully advance q-bio by enabling mechanistic auditing of PPI predictions rather than opaque scores, potentially increasing biologist adoption. The integration of ToT with flow matching for embedding transport and the explicit multi-signal value function represent a creative direction for interpretable search in large protein spaces. The reported rank improvement and F1 score, if reproducible and free of leakage, would constitute a substantial empirical advance over entropic baselines.

major comments (3)
  1. [Abstract] Abstract: The reported metrics (mean best-binder rank 11.2, Micro-F1 91.08 ± 0.19) are presented without any description of training procedure, data splits, cross-validation, or leakage checks for the SHS148k benchmark. This is load-bearing for the central claim because the value function is explicitly trained and the search policy uses a fine-tuned LM; without these details it is impossible to confirm that the 76% rank improvement reflects genuine mechanistic insight rather than benchmark fitting.
  2. [Value function / Results] Value function description (throughout Methods and Results): The manuscript claims the value function transparently preserves the four biological signals, yet no ablation isolating each signal's contribution or external validation against independent mechanistic data is provided. This directly undermines the interpretability contribution, as high benchmark scores could arise from spurious correlations (e.g., sequence composition biases) without the function reflecting genuine biochemical decomposition.
  3. [Search and Flow Matching] Hypothesis-guided search and flow matching sections: The Boltzmann policy, entropy regularization, and embedding-space flow matching are introduced to handle large candidate spaces and score disagreement, but no quantitative breakdown (e.g., ablation removing flow matching or varying entropy) shows how these components drive the reported rank improvement versus the entropic tree search baseline.
minor comments (2)
  1. [Abstract / Methods] The abstract and text would benefit from an explicit equation defining the transparent value function and how the four signals are combined, rather than relying on prose description.
  2. [Figures] Figure captions for any search-tree or embedding visualizations should include quantitative metrics (e.g., number of nodes expanded, pruning rates) to allow readers to assess efficiency claims.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

3 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the constructive and detailed feedback. The comments highlight important areas for improving clarity and empirical support. We address each major comment point by point below, indicating the revisions we will incorporate.

read point-by-point responses
  1. Referee: [Abstract] Abstract: The reported metrics (mean best-binder rank 11.2, Micro-F1 91.08 ± 0.19) are presented without any description of training procedure, data splits, cross-validation, or leakage checks for the SHS148k benchmark. This is load-bearing for the central claim because the value function is explicitly trained and the search policy uses a fine-tuned LM; without these details it is impossible to confirm that the 76% rank improvement reflects genuine mechanistic insight rather than benchmark fitting.

    Authors: We agree that the abstract should supply enough context for the key metrics. The Methods section specifies the value function training on SHS148k using a 70/15/15 split, 5-fold cross-validation, and a held-out set for fine-tuning the language model that generates search directives. No data leakage occurs because candidate pairs in the test set are disjoint from training. We will revise the abstract to include a concise statement of the training and validation protocol. revision: yes

  2. Referee: [Value function / Results] Value function description (throughout Methods and Results): The manuscript claims the value function transparently preserves the four biological signals, yet no ablation isolating each signal's contribution or external validation against independent mechanistic data is provided. This directly undermines the interpretability contribution, as high benchmark scores could arise from spurious correlations (e.g., sequence composition biases) without the function reflecting genuine biochemical decomposition.

    Authors: The value function is explicitly constructed as a weighted sum of the four signals with coefficients chosen from biochemical literature, so each term remains inspectable. While the initial submission did not contain a systematic ablation, the transparent formulation already permits per-signal auditing in the reported case studies. To strengthen the claim, we will add an ablation table that removes one signal at a time and reports the resulting drop in Micro-F1 together with qualitative examples of how the remaining signals still align with known binding mechanisms. revision: yes

  3. Referee: [Search and Flow Matching] Hypothesis-guided search and flow matching sections: The Boltzmann policy, entropy regularization, and embedding-space flow matching are introduced to handle large candidate spaces and score disagreement, but no quantitative breakdown (e.g., ablation removing flow matching or varying entropy) shows how these components drive the reported rank improvement versus the entropic tree search baseline.

    Authors: The primary comparison is already against the entropic tree search baseline, which isolates the net contribution of the hypothesis-guided policy plus flow matching. We acknowledge that finer-grained component ablations would make the source of the 76 % rank gain more transparent. In the revision we will add two targeted ablations: (i) the framework without embedding-space flow matching and (ii) the framework with entropy regularization disabled, each reporting the change in mean best-binder rank on SHS148k. revision: yes

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity; empirical results from trained model on standard benchmark do not reduce to inputs by construction

full rationale

The paper presents an empirical ML framework combining Tree-of-Thoughts search, a trained value function, and flow matching, then reports benchmark numbers (rank 11.2, Micro-F1 91.08) on SHS148k. No derivation chain is claimed that reduces a first-principles prediction or uniqueness theorem to the training data or self-citations. The performance figures are standard held-out evaluations of a fitted system rather than a self-definitional or fitted-input-called-prediction reduction. The four-signal decomposition is presented as a modeling choice whose transparency is asserted, not proven by construction from the benchmark itself. No load-bearing self-citation or ansatz smuggling is evident in the provided text.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

1 free parameters · 1 axioms · 0 invented entities

Based solely on the abstract; the framework rests on the assumption that the four listed biological signals are sufficient and meaningful, plus trained components whose details are not provided.

free parameters (1)
  • value function parameters
    The trained value function that combines the four signals is learned from data and therefore contains fitted parameters.
axioms (1)
  • domain assumption The four signals (sequence similarity, structural complementarity, interface balance, chemical compatibility) reflect genuine biochemical contributions to binding
    Invoked when the paper states that binding evidence is decomposed into these signals to enable auditing.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5831 in / 1573 out tokens · 80306 ms · 2026-05-22T02:05:55.976174+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

104 extracted references · 104 canonical work pages

  1. [1]

    A reference map of the human binary protein interactome.Nature, 580:402–408, 2020

    Luck, K., Kim, D.K., Lamber, L., et al. A reference map of the human binary protein interactome.Nature, 580:402–408, 2020

  2. [2]

    Predicting protein–protein interactions from the molecular to the proteome level.Chemical Reviews, 116:4884–4909, 2016

    Keskin, O., Tuncbag, N., and Gursoy, A. Predicting protein–protein interactions from the molecular to the proteome level.Chemical Reviews, 116:4884–4909, 2016

  3. [3]

    Interactome networks and human disease.Cell, 144:986–998, 2011

    Vidal, M., Cusick, M.E., and Barabási, A.L. Interactome networks and human disease.Cell, 144:986–998, 2011

  4. [4]

    Widespread macromolecular interaction perturbations in human genetic disorders.Cell, 161:647–660, 2015

    Sahni, N., Yi, S., Taipale, M., et al. Widespread macromolecular interaction perturbations in human genetic disorders.Cell, 161:647–660, 2015

  5. [5]

    A proteome-scale map of the human interactome network

    Rolland, T., Ta¸ san, M., Charloteaux, B., et al. A proteome-scale map of the human interactome network. Cell, 159:1212–1226, 2014

  6. [6]

    Dual proteome-scale networks reveal cell-specific remodeling of the human interactome.Cell, 184:3022–3040, 2021

    Huttlin, E.L., Bruckner, R.J., Navarrete-Perea, J., et al. Dual proteome-scale networks reveal cell-specific remodeling of the human interactome.Cell, 184:3022–3040, 2021

  7. [7]

    Evolutionary-scale prediction of atomic-level protein structure with a language model.Science, 379:1123–1130, 2023

    Lin, Z., Akin, H., Rao, R., et al. Evolutionary-scale prediction of atomic-level protein structure with a language model.Science, 379:1123–1130, 2023

  8. [8]

    Biological structure and function emerge from scaling unsupervised learning to 250 million protein sequences.PNAS, 118:e2016239118, 2021

    Rives, A., Meier, J., Sercu, T., et al. Biological structure and function emerge from scaling unsupervised learning to 250 million protein sequences.PNAS, 118:e2016239118, 2021

  9. [9]

    Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold

    Jumper, J., Evans, R., Pritzel, A., et al. Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold. Nature, 596:583–589, 2021

  10. [10]

    Protein complex prediction with AlphaFold-Multimer.bioRxiv, 2022

    Evans, R., O’Neill, M., Pritzel, A., et al. Protein complex prediction with AlphaFold-Multimer.bioRxiv, 2022

  11. [11]

    D-SCRIPT translates genome to phenome with sequence-based, structure-aware predictions of protein-protein interactions.Cell Systems, 12:969–982, 2021

    Sledzieski, S., Singh, R., Cowen, L., and Berger, B. D-SCRIPT translates genome to phenome with sequence-based, structure-aware predictions of protein-protein interactions.Cell Systems, 12:969–982, 2021

  12. [12]

    Multifaceted protein–protein interaction prediction based on Siamese residual RCNN.Bioinformatics, 35:i305–i314, 2019

    Chen, M., Ju, C.J., Zhou, G., et al. Multifaceted protein–protein interaction prediction based on Siamese residual RCNN.Bioinformatics, 35:i305–i314, 2019

  13. [13]

    Protein-protein recognition: crystal structural analysis of a barnase-barstar complex at 2.0-Å resolution.Biochemistry, 33:8878–8889, 1994

    Buckle, A.M., Schreiber, G., and Fersht, A.R. Protein-protein recognition: crystal structural analysis of a barnase-barstar complex at 2.0-Å resolution.Biochemistry, 33:8878–8889, 1994

  14. [14]

    and Stanfield, R.L

    Wilson, I.A. and Stanfield, R.L. Antibody-antigen interactions: new structures and new conformational changes.Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 4:857–867, 1994. 16

  15. [15]

    and Dyson, H.J

    Wright, P.E. and Dyson, H.J. Intrinsically disordered proteins in cellular signalling and regulation.Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology, 16:18–29, 2015

  16. [16]

    Tree of Thoughts: deliberate problem solving with large language models

    Yao, S., Yu, D., Zhao, J., et al. Tree of Thoughts: deliberate problem solving with large language models. InNeurIPS, 2023

  17. [17]

    In The Twelfth Inter- national Conference on Learning Representations

    Long, J. Large language model guided Tree-of-Thought.arXiv:2305.08291, 2023

  18. [18]

    Chain-of-Thought prompting elicits reasoning in large language models

    Wei, J., Wang, X., Schuurmans, D., et al. Chain-of-Thought prompting elicits reasoning in large language models. InNeurIPS, 2022

  19. [19]

    Application of a theory of enzyme specificity to protein synthesis.PNAS, 44:98–104, 1958

    Koshland, D.E. Application of a theory of enzyme specificity to protein synthesis.PNAS, 44:98–104, 1958

  20. [20]

    Induced fit, conformational selection and independent dynamic segments.Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 35:539–546, 2010

    Csermely, P., Palotai, R., and Nussinov, R. Induced fit, conformational selection and independent dynamic segments.Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 35:539–546, 2010

  21. [21]

    arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.15796 , year=

    Liu, X., Ye, H., Lei, J., et al. Monte Carlo Tree Diffusion with multiple experts for protein design. arXiv:2509.15796, 2025

  22. [22]

    and Wunsch, C.D

    Needleman, S.B. and Wunsch, C.D. A general method applicable to the search for similarities in the amino acid sequence of two proteins.Journal of Molecular Biology, 48:443–453, 1970

  23. [23]

    Protein 3D structure computed from evolutionary sequence variation.PLoS ONE, 6:e28766, 2011

    Marks, D.S., Colwell, L.J., Sheridan, R., et al. Protein 3D structure computed from evolutionary sequence variation.PLoS ONE, 6:e28766, 2011

  24. [24]

    Emerging methods in protein co-evolution.Nature Reviews Genetics, 14:249–261, 2013

    de Juan, D., Pazos, F., and Valencia, A. Emerging methods in protein co-evolution.Nature Reviews Genetics, 14:249–261, 2013

  25. [25]

    Protein interaction networks revealed by proteome coevolution.Science, 365:185–189, 2019

    Cong, Q., Anishchenko, I., Ovchinnikov, S., and Baker, D. Protein interaction networks revealed by proteome coevolution.Science, 365:185–189, 2019

  26. [26]

    and Barclay, A.N

    Williams, A.F. and Barclay, A.N. The immunoglobulin superfamily–domains for cell surface recognition. Annual Review of Immunology, 6:381–405, 1988

  27. [27]

    A quantitative analysis of kinase inhibitor selectivity

    Karaman, M.W., Herrgard, S., Treiber, D.K., et al. A quantitative analysis of kinase inhibitor selectivity. Nature Biotechnology, 26:127–132, 2008

  28. [28]

    A solution for the best rotation to relate two sets of vectors.Acta Crystallographica A, 32:922–923, 1976

    Kabsch, W. A solution for the best rotation to relate two sets of vectors.Acta Crystallographica A, 32:922–923, 1976

  29. [29]

    Einfluss der Configuration auf die Wirkung der Enzyme.Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, 27:2985–2993, 1894

    Fischer, E. Einfluss der Configuration auf die Wirkung der Enzyme.Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft, 27:2985–2993, 1894

  30. [30]

    Structure, function and properties of antibody binding sites

    Mian, I.S., Bradwell, A.R., and Olson, A.J. Structure, function and properties of antibody binding sites. Journal of Molecular Biology, 217:133–151, 1991

  31. [31]

    Efficacy and safety of a specific inhibitor of the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase in chronic myeloid leukemia.New England Journal of Medicine, 344:1031–1037, 2001

    Druker, B.J., Talpaz, M., Resta, D.J., et al. Efficacy and safety of a specific inhibitor of the BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase in chronic myeloid leukemia.New England Journal of Medicine, 344:1031–1037, 2001

  32. [32]

    The atomic structure of protein-protein recognition sites.Journal of Molecular Biology, 285:2177–2198, 1999

    Lo Conte, L., Chothia, C., and Janin, J. The atomic structure of protein-protein recognition sites.Journal of Molecular Biology, 285:2177–2198, 1999

  33. [33]

    Activation of apoptosis in vivo by a hydrocarbon-stapled BH3 helix.Science, 305:1466–1470, 2004

    Walensky, L.D., Kung, A.L., Escher, I., et al. Activation of apoptosis in vivo by a hydrocarbon-stapled BH3 helix.Science, 305:1466–1470, 2004

  34. [34]

    and Chothia, C

    Janin, J. and Chothia, C. The structure of protein-protein recognition sites.Journal of Biological Chemistry, 265:16027–16030, 1990

  35. [35]

    and Thorn, K.S

    Bogan, A.A. and Thorn, K.S. Anatomy of hot spots in protein interfaces.Journal of Molecular Biology, 280:1–9, 1998

  36. [36]

    and Janin, J

    Chakrabarti, P. and Janin, J. Dissecting protein-protein recognition sites.Proteins, 47:334–343, 2002

  37. [37]

    The T790M mutation in EGFR kinase causes drug resistance by increasing the affinity for ATP.PNAS, 105:2070–2075, 2008

    Yun, C.H., Mengwasser, K.E., Toms, A.V ., et al. The T790M mutation in EGFR kinase causes drug resistance by increasing the affinity for ATP.PNAS, 105:2070–2075, 2008

  38. [38]

    and Valencia, A

    Pazos, F. and Valencia, A. Similarity of phylogenetic trees as indicator of protein–protein interaction. Protein Engineering, 14:609–614, 2001. 17

  39. [39]

    Modeling purposeful adaptive behavior with the principle of maximum causal entropy

    Ziebart, B.D. Modeling purposeful adaptive behavior with the principle of maximum causal entropy. PhD thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, 2010

  40. [40]

    Soft Actor-Critic: off-policy maximum entropy deep reinforcement learning

    Haarnoja, T., Zhou, A., Abbeel, P., and Levine, S. Soft Actor-Critic: off-policy maximum entropy deep reinforcement learning. InICML, 2018

  41. [41]

    Antibody recognition of the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus hemagglutinin receptor binding site.Journal of Virology, 87:12471–12480, 2013

    Hong, M., Lee, P.S., Hoffman, R.M., et al. Antibody recognition of the pandemic H1N1 influenza virus hemagglutinin receptor binding site.Journal of Virology, 87:12471–12480, 2013

  42. [42]

    SKEMPI 2.0: an updated benchmark of changes in protein–protein binding energy, kinetics and thermodynamics upon mutation.Bioinformatics, 35:462–469, 2019

    Jankauskaite, J., Jimenez-Garcia, B., Dapkunas, J., Fernandez-Recio, J., and Moal, I.H. SKEMPI 2.0: an updated benchmark of changes in protein–protein binding energy, kinetics and thermodynamics upon mutation.Bioinformatics, 35:462–469, 2019

  43. [43]

    Principles of early drug discovery.British Journal of Pharmacology, 162:1239–1249, 2011

    Hughes, J.P., Rees, S., Kalindjian, S.B., and Philpott, K.L. Principles of early drug discovery.British Journal of Pharmacology, 162:1239–1249, 2011

  44. [44]

    How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry’s grand challenge.Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 9:203–214, 2010

    Paul, S.M., Mytelka, D.S., Dunwiddie, C.T., et al. How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry’s grand challenge.Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 9:203–214, 2010

  45. [45]

    Small-molecule inhibitors of protein–protein interactions: progress- ing toward the reality.Chemistry & Biology, 21:1102–1114, 2014

    Arkin, M.R., Tang, Y ., and Wells, J.A. Small-molecule inhibitors of protein–protein interactions: progress- ing toward the reality.Chemistry & Biology, 21:1102–1114, 2014

  46. [46]

    and McClendon, C.L

    Wells, J.A. and McClendon, C.L. Reaching for high-hanging fruit in drug discovery at protein–protein interfaces.Nature, 450:1001–1009, 2007

  47. [47]

    The coming of age of de novo protein design.Nature, 537:320– 327, 2016

    Huang, P.S., Boyken, S.E., and Baker, D. The coming of age of de novo protein design.Nature, 537:320– 327, 2016

  48. [48]

    De novo design of protein structure and function with RFdiffusion.Nature, 620:1089–1100, 2023

    Watson, J.L., Juergens, D., Bennett, N.R., et al. De novo design of protein structure and function with RFdiffusion.Nature, 620:1089–1100, 2023

  49. [49]

    Learning inverse folding from millions of predicted structures

    Hsu, C., Verkuil, R., Liu, J., et al. Learning inverse folding from millions of predicted structures. InICML, 2022

  50. [50]

    HawkDock: a web server to predict and analyze the protein–protein complex.Nucleic Acids Research, 47:W322–W330, 2019

    Weng, G., Wang, E., Wang, Z., et al. HawkDock: a web server to predict and analyze the protein–protein complex.Nucleic Acids Research, 47:W322–W330, 2019

  51. [51]

    Recent developments and applications of the MMPBSA method.Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 4:87, 2018

    Wang, C., Greene, D., Xiao, L., Qi, R., and Luo, R. Recent developments and applications of the MMPBSA method.Frontiers in Molecular Biosciences, 4:87, 2018

  52. [52]

    mysterious

    Uversky, V .N. Intrinsically disordered proteins and their “mysterious” (meta)physics.Frontiers in Physics, 7:10, 2019

  53. [53]

    Flow matching for generative modeling

    Lipman, Y ., Chen, R.T.Q., Ben-Hamu, H., Nickel, M., and Le, M. Flow matching for generative modeling. InICLR, 2023

  54. [54]

    Flow straight and fast: learning to generate and transfer data with rectified flow

    Liu, X., Gong, C., and Liu, Q. Flow straight and fast: learning to generate and transfer data with rectified flow. InICLR, 2023

  55. [55]

    Large language models generate functional protein sequences across diverse families.Nature Biotechnology, 41:1099–1106, 2023

    Madani, A., Krause, B., Greene, E.R., et al. Large language models generate functional protein sequences across diverse families.Nature Biotechnology, 41:1099–1106, 2023

  56. [56]

    Tranception: protein fitness prediction with autoregressive transformers and inference-time retrieval

    Notin, P., Dias, M., Fraber, J., et al. Tranception: protein fitness prediction with autoregressive transformers and inference-time retrieval. InICML, 2022

  57. [57]

    BERTology meets biology: interpreting attention in protein language models

    Vig, J., Madani, A., Varber, L.R., et al. BERTology meets biology: interpreting attention in protein language models. InICLR, 2020

  58. [58]

    Iterative refinement graph neural network for antibody sequence- structure co-design

    Jin, W., Barzilay, R., and Jaakkola, T. Iterative refinement graph neural network for antibody sequence- structure co-design. InICLR, 2022

  59. [59]

    Conditional antibody design as 3D equivariant graph translation

    Kong, X., Huang, W., and Liu, Y . Conditional antibody design as 3D equivariant graph translation. In ICLR, 2023

  60. [60]

    and Bayzid, M.S

    Mahbub, S. and Bayzid, M.S. EGRET: edge aggregated graph attention networks and transfer learning improve protein–protein interaction site prediction.Briefings in Bioinformatics, 23:bbab578, 2022

  61. [61]

    DeepRank-GNN: a graph neural network framework to learn patterns in protein–protein interfaces.Bioinformatics, 39:btac759, 2023

    Réau, M., Renaud, N., Xue, L.C., and Bonvin, A.M. DeepRank-GNN: a graph neural network framework to learn patterns in protein–protein interfaces.Bioinformatics, 39:btac759, 2023. 18

  62. [62]

    OntoProtein: protein pretraining with gene ontology embedding

    Zhang, N., Bi, Z., Liang, X., et al. OntoProtein: protein pretraining with gene ontology embedding. In ICLR, 2022

  63. [63]

    ProteinChat: towards enabling ChatGPT-like capabilities on protein 3D structures.bioRxiv, 2023

    Guo, H., Huo, J., and Shi, J. ProteinChat: towards enabling ChatGPT-like capabilities on protein 3D structures.bioRxiv, 2023

  64. [64]

    ProtChatGPT: towards understanding proteins with large language models

    Wang, Y ., Zhao, H., and Li, Y . ProtChatGPT: towards understanding proteins with large language models. arXiv:2402.09649, 2024

  65. [65]

    ProtST: multi-modality learning of protein sequences and biomedical texts

    Xu, M., Yuan, X., Miber, S., and Tang, J. ProtST: multi-modality learning of protein sequences and biomedical texts. InICML, 2023

  66. [66]

    Predicting protein–protein interactions based only on sequences information.PNAS, 104:4337–4341, 2007

    Shen, J., Zhang, J., Luo, X., et al. Predicting protein–protein interactions based only on sequences information.PNAS, 104:4337–4341, 2007

  67. [67]

    Inferring domain-domain interactions from protein–protein interactions.Genome Research, 12:1540–1548, 2002

    Deng, M., Mehta, S., Sun, F., and Chen, T. Inferring domain-domain interactions from protein–protein interactions.Genome Research, 12:1540–1548, 2002

  68. [68]

    Network-based prediction of protein function.Molecular Systems Biology, 3:88, 2007

    Sharan, R., Ulitsky, I., and Shamir, R. Network-based prediction of protein function.Molecular Systems Biology, 3:88, 2007

  69. [69]

    Computational optimal transport.Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning, 11:355–607, 2019

    Peyré, G., Cuturi, M., et al. Computational optimal transport.Foundations and Trends in Machine Learning, 11:355–607, 2019

  70. [70]

    Attention is all you need

    Vaswani, A., Shazeer, N., Parmar, N., et al. Attention is all you need. InNeurIPS, 2017

  71. [71]

    BERT: pre-training of deep bidirectional transformers for language understanding

    Devlin, J., Chang, M.W., Lee, K., and Toutanova, K. BERT: pre-training of deep bidirectional transformers for language understanding. InNAACL, 2019

  72. [72]

    Language models are few-shot learners

    Brown, T., Mann, B., Ryder, N., et al. Language models are few-shot learners. InNeurIPS, 2020

  73. [74]

    Denoising diffusion probabilistic models

    Ho, J., Jain, A., and Abbeel, P. Denoising diffusion probabilistic models. InNeurIPS, 2020

  74. [75]

    Score-based generative modeling through stochastic differential equations

    Song, Y ., Sohl-Dickstein, J., Kingma, D.P., et al. Score-based generative modeling through stochastic differential equations. InICLR, 2021

  75. [76]

    and Barto, A.G.Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction

    Sutton, R.S. and Barto, A.G.Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction. MIT Press, 2nd edition, 2018

  76. [77]

    Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search.Nature, 529:484–489, 2016

    Silver, D., Huang, A., Maddison, C.J., et al. Mastering the game of Go with deep neural networks and tree search.Nature, 529:484–489, 2016

  77. [78]

    Mastering Atari, Go, chess and shogi by planning with a learned model.Nature, 588:604–609, 2020

    Schrittwieser, J., Antonoglou, I., Hubert, T., et al. Mastering Atari, Go, chess and shogi by planning with a learned model.Nature, 588:604–609, 2020

  78. [79]

    SE(3) diffusion model with application to protein backbone generation

    Yim, J., Trippe, B.L., De Bortoli, V ., et al. SE(3) diffusion model with application to protein backbone generation. InICML, 2023

  79. [80]

    L., Nastou, K

    Szklarczyk, D., Gable, A. L., Nastou, K. C., Lyon, D., Kirsch, R., Pyysalo, S., Doncheva, N. T., Legeay, M., Fang, T., Bork, P., Jensen, L. J., and von Mering, C. STRING v11.5: protein–protein association networks with increased coverage supporting functional discovery in genome-wide experimental datasets. Nucleic Acids Research, 49(D1):D605–D612, 2021

  80. [81]

    Learning unknown from correlations: Graph neural network for inter-novel-protein interaction prediction

    Lv, G., Hu, Z., Bi, Y ., and Zhang, S. Learning unknown from correlations: Graph neural network for inter-novel-protein interaction prediction. InProceedings of the Thirtieth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), pages 3677–3683, 2021

Showing first 80 references.