mRNAutilus: Multi-Objective-Guided Discrete Generation of mRNA with Optimized Therapeutic Properties

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Patel, Sawan, Tang, Sophia, Kim, Yesol, Zhang, Yinuo, Srijay, Divya, Lin, Ping-Jung, Shubham, Shambhavi, Pi, Fengmei, Wu, Cedric, Yao, Sherwood, Chatterjee, Pranam
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Patel, Sawan
Tang, Sophia
Kim, Yesol
Zhang, Yinuo
Srijay, Divya
Lin, Ping-Jung
Shubham, Shambhavi
Pi, Fengmei
Wu, Cedric
Yao, Sherwood
Chatterjee, Pranam
author_facet Patel, Sawan
Tang, Sophia
Kim, Yesol
Zhang, Yinuo
Srijay, Divya
Lin, Ping-Jung
Shubham, Shambhavi
Pi, Fengmei
Wu, Cedric
Yao, Sherwood
Chatterjee, Pranam
contents Therapeutic mRNA design requires coordinating multiple interacting sequence features across the full transcript, where codon usage, untranslated regions (UTRs), and their coupling jointly determine stability, translation efficiency, and protein expression. Here, we present mRNA generation via unrolled trajectories and informed latent updates (mRNAutilus), a framework for simultaneous codon optimization and de novo UTR design directly from sequence. mRNAutilus combines a masked discrete diffusion model trained on millions of full-length mRNAs with Monte Carlo Tree Guidance to generate Pareto-efficient sequences under multiple functional objectives, using lightweight regressors over model embeddings to predict half-life, translation efficiency, and protein abundance. Unlike recent methods that design coding sequences and UTRs separately or rely on post hoc assembly and screening, mRNAutilus generates complete transcripts in a single process optimized across properties. Across diverse targets, zero-shot mRNAs encoding P. pyralis luciferase achieve over 400-fold higher expression than wild-type and outperform commercial and machine learning-designed baselines, including zero-shot generative approaches. Zero-shot SARS-CoV-2 Spike mRNAs exceed clinically used and commercial constructs and match or surpass lab-optimized designs with improved durability. We further demonstrate generality in therapeutic settings, including prime editing (PEMax) and programmable proteome modulation, where mRNAutilus-designed constructs enhance expression of peptide-guided E3 ligases (uAbs) for beta-catenin degradation. These results establish a sequence-based, multi-objective framework for generating functional mRNAs tailored to diverse biological applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_31296
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle mRNAutilus: Multi-Objective-Guided Discrete Generation of mRNA with Optimized Therapeutic Properties
Patel, Sawan
Tang, Sophia
Kim, Yesol
Zhang, Yinuo
Srijay, Divya
Lin, Ping-Jung
Shubham, Shambhavi
Pi, Fengmei
Wu, Cedric
Yao, Sherwood
Chatterjee, Pranam
Biomolecules
Machine Learning
Therapeutic mRNA design requires coordinating multiple interacting sequence features across the full transcript, where codon usage, untranslated regions (UTRs), and their coupling jointly determine stability, translation efficiency, and protein expression. Here, we present mRNA generation via unrolled trajectories and informed latent updates (mRNAutilus), a framework for simultaneous codon optimization and de novo UTR design directly from sequence. mRNAutilus combines a masked discrete diffusion model trained on millions of full-length mRNAs with Monte Carlo Tree Guidance to generate Pareto-efficient sequences under multiple functional objectives, using lightweight regressors over model embeddings to predict half-life, translation efficiency, and protein abundance. Unlike recent methods that design coding sequences and UTRs separately or rely on post hoc assembly and screening, mRNAutilus generates complete transcripts in a single process optimized across properties. Across diverse targets, zero-shot mRNAs encoding P. pyralis luciferase achieve over 400-fold higher expression than wild-type and outperform commercial and machine learning-designed baselines, including zero-shot generative approaches. Zero-shot SARS-CoV-2 Spike mRNAs exceed clinically used and commercial constructs and match or surpass lab-optimized designs with improved durability. We further demonstrate generality in therapeutic settings, including prime editing (PEMax) and programmable proteome modulation, where mRNAutilus-designed constructs enhance expression of peptide-guided E3 ligases (uAbs) for beta-catenin degradation. These results establish a sequence-based, multi-objective framework for generating functional mRNAs tailored to diverse biological applications.
title mRNAutilus: Multi-Objective-Guided Discrete Generation of mRNA with Optimized Therapeutic Properties
topic Biomolecules
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.31296