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Record W4417091407 · doi:10.1126/sciadv.adx6373

Atom-level machine learning of protein-glycan interactions and cross-chiral recognition in glycobiology

2025· article· en· W4417091407 on OpenAlexafffund
Eric J Carpenter, Chuanhao Peng, Simatsidk Haregu, Nicholas Twells, Logan Woudstra, Amika Sood, Jonathan Cartmell, Robert J. Woods, Lara K. Mahal, Sheng‐Kai Wang, Russell Greiner, Ratmir Derda

Bibliographic record

VenueScience Advances · 2025
Typearticle
Languageen
FieldBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
TopicGlycosylation and Glycoproteins Research
Canadian institutionsInstitute of Health EconomicsUniversity of Alberta
FundersCanadian Glycomics NetworkNatural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of CanadaGenome CanadaCanadian Institutes of Health ResearchCanada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of CanadaNational Research Council Canada
KeywordsGlycobiologyGlycanProtein–protein interactionBinding affinitiesDNA microarrayMonosaccharide

Abstract

fetched live from OpenAlex

We describe a machine-learned (ML) model, MCNet, which predicts interactions between proteins and glycans. MCNet predicted quantitative interactions between glycan-binding proteins (GBPs) and enantiomers of common glycans, which were not part of the original training datasets. l-glycans are rare in nature but are important in consideration of safety of putative mirror-image life-forms. Current ML models that predict properties of glycans from their monosaccharide composition cannot extrapolate properties of mirror glycans. Instead, MCNet uses an atom-level description of the glycan to output an estimate of binding to GBPs. MCNet is trained using data from glycan microarrays and affinity measurements unified using a "fraction bound" parameter. Trained MCNet predicted unexpected binding of l-glucose to some fucose-binding GBPs. Both glycan and lectin arrays conformed these predictions. ML models akin to MCNet reach beyond traditional glycobiology and make it possible to anticipate interaction between biomolecules in mirror-life forms and present-day life-forms.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.

How this classification was reachedexpand

Full frame machine prediction

Teacher imitation

Not calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.

metaresearch head score (Codex)0.001
metaresearch head score (Gemma)0.002
Version: metacan-v3-hybrid-931329e0061cValidation status: machine_predicted_unvalidated
Candidate categoriesnone
Consensus categoriesnone
DomainCandidate signal: none · Consensus signal: none
Study designCandidate signal: Simulation or modeling · Consensus signal: Simulation or modeling
GenreCandidate signal: Empirical · Consensus signal: none
Teacher disagreement score0.007
Threshold uncertainty score0.013

Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)

CategoryCodexGemma
Metaresearch0.0010.002
Meta-epidemiology (narrow)0.0010.000
Meta-epidemiology (broad)0.0010.001
Bibliometrics0.0000.000
Science and technology studies0.0000.001
Scholarly communication0.0010.001
Open science0.0010.001
Research integrity0.0010.001
Insufficient payload (model declined to judge)0.0020.000

Machine scores (provisional)

The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.

Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.

Opus teacher head0.021
GPT teacher head0.357
Teacher spread0.335 · how far apart the two teachers sit on this one work
Validation statusscore_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it

Classification

machine, unvalidated

Machine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.

The models applied no category: nothing in the taxonomy fit this work.
Study designSimulation or modeling
Domainnot available
GenreEmpirical

How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".

Quick stats

Citations4
Published2025
Admission routes2
Has abstractyes

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