Cited by 2,210Protein Structure and DynamicsMachine Learning in BioinformaticsComputational Drug Discovery Methods

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 38 of the 38 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 8 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Robust deep learning–based protein sequence design using ProteinMPNN

Open access

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Although deep learning has revolutionized protein structure prediction, almost all experimentally characterized de novo protein designs have been generated using physically based approaches such as Rosetta. Here, we describe a deep learning–based protein sequence design method, ProteinMPNN, that has outstanding performance in both in silico and experimental tests. On native protein backbones, ProteinMPNN has a sequence recovery of 52.4% compared with 32.9% for Rosetta. The amino acid sequence at different positions can be coupled between single or multiple chains, enabling application to a wide range of current protein design challenges. We demonstrate the broad utility and high accuracy of ProteinMPNN using x-ray crystallography, cryo–electron microscopy, and functional studies by rescuing previously failed designs, which were made using Rosetta or AlphaFold, of protein monomers, cyclic homo-oligomers, tetrahedral nanoparticles, and target-binding proteins.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

ProteinMPNN is a deep learning–based protein sequence design method that uses a message-passing neural network with order-agnostic decoding and symmetry-aware coupling to design sequences for monomers, oligomers, nanoparticles, and interfaces. It achieves higher native sequence recovery than Rosetta and rescues previously failed experimental designs across multiple protein design challenges.

Key findings

  • On native protein backbones, ProteinMPNN achieved 52.4% sequence recovery versus 32.9% for Rosetta, while requiring only 1.2 seconds versus 4.3 minutes for a 100-residue protein.
  • Median sequence recovery was 52% for monomers, 55% for homomers, and 51% for heteromers; recovery ranged from 90–95% in the deep core to 35% on the surface.
  • Training with backbone noise improved robustness: a model trained with 0.3 Å noise generated 2–3 times more sequences with AlphaFold predictions within lDDT-Ca of 95.0 and 90.0 of the true structures than unnoised or slightly noised models.
  • Experimental rescue of AlphaFold-generated designs: of 96 designs produced in E. coli, 73 were soluble (median soluble yield 247 mg/L vs. 9 mg/L for AF sequences) and 50 had the target monomeric or oligomeric state; for C5/C6 cyclic oligomers, ProteinMPNN designs were 88% soluble with 27.7% correct oligomeric state versus 40% soluble and none correct for Rosetta designs.

Methods

  • ProteinMPNN is based on a message-passing neural network with 3 encoder and 3 decoder layers and 128 hidden dimensions, using backbone features including Ca-Ca distances, relative frame orientations, dihedral angles, and added N, Ca, C, O, and virtual Cb distances; edge updates and order-agnostic autoregressive decoding were introduced.
  • Training used protein assemblies from the PDB (as of Aug 02, 2021) determined by X-ray crystallography or cryoEM to better than 3.5 Å resolution and with fewer than 10,000 residues, clustered at 30% sequence identity with mmseqs2, yielding 25,361 clusters; monomer training/validation used 19.7k high-resolution single-chain structures split by CATH.
  • Evaluation included in silico test sets of 402 monomer backbones for Rosetta comparison and 690 monomers, 732 homomers (<2000 residues), and 98 heteromers, plus experimental characterization by E. coli expression, SEC, SEC-MALS, X-ray crystallography, cryoEM, and biolayer interferometry.

Limitations

  • The paper states that in silico metrics such as native sequence recovery are sensitive to crystallographic resolution and may not correlate with proper folding; even a single residue substitution can block folding.
  • The paper notes that deep learning methods lack the physical transparency of methods like Rosetta.
  • The text does not include a dedicated limitations section; evident from the text, experimental validation covers selected design challenges and backbones, and not all designed sequences were structurally characterized.

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Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1126/science.add2187

Cites

38 of 38 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

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Claims the paper makes

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Show all 27 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 19
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 3
21 of 21
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Evolution in most cases does not optimize for stability.

    “as evolution in most cases does not optimize for stability”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The backbones of previously failed designs are correct and designable targets, so failure was due to the sequence.

    “we kept the backbones of the original designs fixed but discarded the original sequences and generated new ones using ProteinMPNN.”
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  • CATH citation points to the wrong reference

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    The text cites reference 7 for CATH, but the CATH paper is listed as reference 8. Reference 7 is a different paper.

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Metadata

Authors
Dauparas, J., Anishchenko, I., Bennett, N., Bai, H., Ragotte, R. J., Milles, L. F., Wicky, B. I. M., Courbet, A., de Haas, R. J., Bethel, N., Leung, P. J. Y., Huddy, T. F., Pellock, S., Tischer, D., Chan, F., Koepnick, B., Nguyen, H., Kang, A., Sankaran, B., Bera, A. K., King, N. P., & Baker, D.
Affiliations
  • University of Washington (US)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • Wageningen University & Research (NL)
  • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
Corresponding author
Baker, D.
Venue
Science
Published
2022-10-07
Volume
378
Issue
6615
Pages
49-56
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W4296032638
Cited by
2,210
References
35
Citations by year
2026: 927 · 2025: 660 · 2024: 391 · 2023: 201 · 2022: 29
FWCI
94.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc-nd
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Science Foundation (DEAC02-05CH11231, DGE-214-0004, 1937533, P30 GM124169, 2140004)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (P30 GM124169-01, DE-AC02-05CH11231, GT11817)
  • U.S. Department of Energy (-AC02-05CH11231, 05CH11231, DE AC02 05CH11231, GM124169, DE-AC02-)
  • Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (g-2021-16899, DE-AC02-05CH11231)
  • Washington Research Foundation
  • Open Philanthropy Project
  • National Institutes of Health (DE-AC02–05CH11231)
  • Office of Science (DEAC02–05CH11231, AC02-05CH11231, DE-AC02)
  • National Institute of General Medical Sciences (DE-AC02-05CH11231, GM124169-01, P30GM124169)
  • Basic Energy Sciences (DE-AC02, DE-AC02-05CH11231., AC02–05CH11231)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Protein Structure and Dynamics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Machine Learning in Bioinformatics
  • Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Drug Discovery › Computational Drug Discovery Methods
Keywords
protein sequence design, de novo protein design, ProteinMPNN, deep learning, sequence recovery, protein structure prediction
MeSH terms
Deep Learning, Amino Acid Sequence, Protein Conformation, Proteins, Protein Engineering, Crystallography, X-Ray, Cryoelectron Microscopy

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