Using Deep Learning Models Pretrained by Self-Supervised Learning for Protein Localization

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Isselmann, Ben, Göksu, Dilara, Neumann, Heinz, Weinmann, Andreas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911587824041984
author Isselmann, Ben
Göksu, Dilara
Neumann, Heinz
Weinmann, Andreas
author_facet Isselmann, Ben
Göksu, Dilara
Neumann, Heinz
Weinmann, Andreas
contents Background: Task-specific microscopy datasets are often small, making it difficult to train deep learning models that learn robust features. While self-supervised learning (SSL) has shown promise through pretraining on large, domain-specific datasets, generalizability across datasets with differing staining protocols and channel configurations remains underexplored. We investigated the generalizability of SSL models pretrained on ImageNet-1k and HPA FOV, evaluating their embeddings on OpenCell with and without fine-tuning, two channel-mismatch strategies, and varying fine-tuning data fractions. We additionally analyzed single-cell embeddings on a labeled OpenCell subset. Result: DINO-based ViT backbones pretrained on HPA FOV or ImageNet-1k transfer well to OpenCell even without fine-tuning. The HPA FOV-pretrained model achieved the highest zero-shot performance (macro $F_1$ 0.822 $\pm$ 0.007). Fine-tuning further improved performance to 0.860 $\pm$ 0.013. At the single-cell level, the HPA single-cell-pretrained model achieved the highest k-nearest neighbor performance across all neighborhood sizes (macro $F_1$ $\geq$ 0.796). Conclusion: SSL methods like DINO, pretrained on large domain-relevant datasets, enable effective use of deep learning features for fine-tuning on small, task-specific microscopy datasets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_10970
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Using Deep Learning Models Pretrained by Self-Supervised Learning for Protein Localization
Isselmann, Ben
Göksu, Dilara
Neumann, Heinz
Weinmann, Andreas
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Background: Task-specific microscopy datasets are often small, making it difficult to train deep learning models that learn robust features. While self-supervised learning (SSL) has shown promise through pretraining on large, domain-specific datasets, generalizability across datasets with differing staining protocols and channel configurations remains underexplored. We investigated the generalizability of SSL models pretrained on ImageNet-1k and HPA FOV, evaluating their embeddings on OpenCell with and without fine-tuning, two channel-mismatch strategies, and varying fine-tuning data fractions. We additionally analyzed single-cell embeddings on a labeled OpenCell subset. Result: DINO-based ViT backbones pretrained on HPA FOV or ImageNet-1k transfer well to OpenCell even without fine-tuning. The HPA FOV-pretrained model achieved the highest zero-shot performance (macro $F_1$ 0.822 $\pm$ 0.007). Fine-tuning further improved performance to 0.860 $\pm$ 0.013. At the single-cell level, the HPA single-cell-pretrained model achieved the highest k-nearest neighbor performance across all neighborhood sizes (macro $F_1$ $\geq$ 0.796). Conclusion: SSL methods like DINO, pretrained on large domain-relevant datasets, enable effective use of deep learning features for fine-tuning on small, task-specific microscopy datasets.
title Using Deep Learning Models Pretrained by Self-Supervised Learning for Protein Localization
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.10970