With AI, researchers predict the location of virtually any protein within a human cell

Prediction of protein subcellular localization in single cells

The subcellular localization of a protein is important for its function, and its mislocalization is linked to numerous diseases. Existing datasets capture limited pairs of proteins and cell lines, and existing protein localization prediction models either miss cell-type specificity or cannot generalize to unseen proteins. Here we present a method for Prediction of Unseen Proteins’ Subcellular localization (PUPS). PUPS combines a protein language…

With AI, researchers predict the location of virtually any protein within a human cell

A protein located in the wrong part of a cell can contribute to several diseases, such as Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, and cancer. But there are about 70,000 different proteins and protein variants in a single human cell, and since scientists can typically only test for a handful in one experiment, it is extremely costly and time-consuming to identify proteins' locations manually.

Machine Learning Unlocks Cellular Condensate Localization Beyond Peptides

In the rapidly evolving landscape of cellular biology, understanding the precise mechanisms that dictate the localization of proteins within the complex milieu of the cell remains one of the great challenges. A groundbreaking study by Ditlev and Forman-Kay, published in Cell Research in 2025, pushes the boundaries of our knowledge by leveraging machine learning to decode how proteins are targeted to cellular condensates beyond classical peptide …

In a revolutionary advance, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Whitehead Institute have developed ProtGPS, an artificial intelligence model capable of predicting with high precision the subcellular location of proteins based solely on their amino acid sequence. This discovery, published in Science magazine, opens new possibilities for understanding cell function and the development of targeted therapies. Why…