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Main Authors: Hwang, Minyeong, Lee, Ziseok, Kim, Kwang-Soo, Kim, Kyungsu, Yang, Eunho
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.17349
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author Hwang, Minyeong
Lee, Ziseok
Kim, Kwang-Soo
Kim, Kyungsu
Yang, Eunho
author_facet Hwang, Minyeong
Lee, Ziseok
Kim, Kwang-Soo
Kim, Kyungsu
Yang, Eunho
contents Linker generation is critical in drug discovery applications such as lead optimization and PROTAC design, where molecular fragments are assembled into diverse drug candidates via molecular linker. Existing methods fall into point cloud-free and point cloud-aware categories based on their use of fragments' 3D poses alongside their topologies in sampling the linker's topology. Point cloud-free models prioritize sample diversity but suffer from lower validity due to overlooking fragments' spatial constraints, while point cloud-aware models ensure higher validity but restrict diversity by enforcing strict spatial constraints. To overcome these trade-offs without additional training, we propose HybridLinker, a framework that enhances point cloud-aware inference by providing diverse bonding topologies from a pretrained point cloud-free model as guidance. At its core, we propose LinkerDPS, the first diffusion posterior sampling (DPS) method operating across point cloud-free and point cloud-aware spaces, bridging molecular topology with 3D point clouds via an energy-inspired function. By transferring the diverse sampling distribution of point cloud-free models into the point cloud-aware distribution, HybridLinker significantly surpasses baselines, improving both validity and diversity in foundational molecular design and applied drug optimization tasks, establishing a new DPS framework in the molecular domains beyond imaging.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_17349
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle HybridLinker: Topology-Guided Posterior Sampling for Enhanced Diversity and Validity in 3D Molecular Linker Generation
Hwang, Minyeong
Lee, Ziseok
Kim, Kwang-Soo
Kim, Kyungsu
Yang, Eunho
Chemical Physics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Linker generation is critical in drug discovery applications such as lead optimization and PROTAC design, where molecular fragments are assembled into diverse drug candidates via molecular linker. Existing methods fall into point cloud-free and point cloud-aware categories based on their use of fragments' 3D poses alongside their topologies in sampling the linker's topology. Point cloud-free models prioritize sample diversity but suffer from lower validity due to overlooking fragments' spatial constraints, while point cloud-aware models ensure higher validity but restrict diversity by enforcing strict spatial constraints. To overcome these trade-offs without additional training, we propose HybridLinker, a framework that enhances point cloud-aware inference by providing diverse bonding topologies from a pretrained point cloud-free model as guidance. At its core, we propose LinkerDPS, the first diffusion posterior sampling (DPS) method operating across point cloud-free and point cloud-aware spaces, bridging molecular topology with 3D point clouds via an energy-inspired function. By transferring the diverse sampling distribution of point cloud-free models into the point cloud-aware distribution, HybridLinker significantly surpasses baselines, improving both validity and diversity in foundational molecular design and applied drug optimization tasks, establishing a new DPS framework in the molecular domains beyond imaging.
title HybridLinker: Topology-Guided Posterior Sampling for Enhanced Diversity and Validity in 3D Molecular Linker Generation
topic Chemical Physics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.17349