engGNN: A Dual-Graph Neural Network for Omics-Based Disease Classification and Feature Selection

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Yang, Tiantian, Wang, Yuxuan, Zhou, Zhenwei, Liu, Ching-Ti
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2026
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author Yang, Tiantian
Wang, Yuxuan
Zhou, Zhenwei
Liu, Ching-Ti
author_facet Yang, Tiantian
Wang, Yuxuan
Zhou, Zhenwei
Liu, Ching-Ti
contents Omics data, such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, provide critical insights into disease mechanisms and clinical outcomes. However, their high dimensionality, small sample sizes, and intricate biological networks pose major challenges for reliable prediction and meaningful interpretation. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) offer a promising way to integrate prior knowledge by encoding feature relationships as graphs. Yet, existing methods typically rely solely on either an externally curated feature graph or a data-driven generated one, which limits their ability to capture complementary information. To address this, we propose the external and generated Graph Neural Network (engGNN), a dual-graph framework that jointly leverages both external known biological networks and data-driven generated graphs. Specifically, engGNN constructs a biologically informed undirected feature graph from established network databases and complements it with a directed feature graph derived from tree-ensemble models. This dual-graph design produces more comprehensive embeddings, thereby improving predictive performance and interpretability. Through extensive simulations and real-world applications to gene expression data, engGNN consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. Beyond classification, engGNN provides interpretable feature importance scores that facilitate biologically meaningful discoveries, such as pathway enrichment analysis. Taken together, these results highlight engGNN as a robust, flexible, and interpretable framework for disease classification and biomarker discovery in high-dimensional omics contexts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_14536
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle engGNN: A Dual-Graph Neural Network for Omics-Based Disease Classification and Feature Selection
Yang, Tiantian
Wang, Yuxuan
Zhou, Zhenwei
Liu, Ching-Ti
Machine Learning
Genomics
62R07
Omics data, such as transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, provide critical insights into disease mechanisms and clinical outcomes. However, their high dimensionality, small sample sizes, and intricate biological networks pose major challenges for reliable prediction and meaningful interpretation. Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) offer a promising way to integrate prior knowledge by encoding feature relationships as graphs. Yet, existing methods typically rely solely on either an externally curated feature graph or a data-driven generated one, which limits their ability to capture complementary information. To address this, we propose the external and generated Graph Neural Network (engGNN), a dual-graph framework that jointly leverages both external known biological networks and data-driven generated graphs. Specifically, engGNN constructs a biologically informed undirected feature graph from established network databases and complements it with a directed feature graph derived from tree-ensemble models. This dual-graph design produces more comprehensive embeddings, thereby improving predictive performance and interpretability. Through extensive simulations and real-world applications to gene expression data, engGNN consistently outperforms state-of-the-art baselines. Beyond classification, engGNN provides interpretable feature importance scores that facilitate biologically meaningful discoveries, such as pathway enrichment analysis. Taken together, these results highlight engGNN as a robust, flexible, and interpretable framework for disease classification and biomarker discovery in high-dimensional omics contexts.
title engGNN: A Dual-Graph Neural Network for Omics-Based Disease Classification and Feature Selection
topic Machine Learning
Genomics
62R07
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.14536