Protein Large Language Models: A Comprehensive Survey
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Abstract (arXiv)
Protein-specific large language models (Protein LLMs) are revolutionizing protein science by enabling more efficient protein structure prediction, function annotation, and design. While existing surveys focus on specific aspects or applications, this work provides the first comprehensive overview of Protein LLMs, covering their architectures, training datasets, evaluation metrics, and diverse applications. Through a systematic analysis of over 100 articles, we propose a structured taxonomy of state-of-the-art Protein LLMs, analyze how they leverage large-scale protein sequence data for improved accuracy, and explore their potential in advancing protein engineering and biomedical research. Additionally, we discuss key challenges and future directions, positioning Protein LLMs as essential tools for scientific discovery in protein science. Resources are maintained at https://github.com/Yijia-Xiao/Protein-LLM-Survey.
Key facts. Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 57 of its 168 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 Feb 2025.
Builds on
57 of 168 references.
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38 more
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 10; 2026: 8.
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- 2025Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systemscited by 126
- 2025A Survey of Scientific Large Language Models: From Data Foundations to Agent Frontierscited by 37
- 2025How Can Time Series Analysis Benefit From Multiple Modalities? A Survey and Outlookcited by 20
- 2025MD-LLM-1: A Large Language Model for Molecular Dynamicscited by 7
- 2025Advances in Protein Representation Learning: Methods, Applications, and Future Directionscited by 3
- 2025Resilient Biosecurity in the Era of AI-Enabled Bioweaponscited by 3
- 2025Constrained Sliced Wasserstein Embeddingcited by 2
- 2026Protein Language Models Diverge from Natural Language: Comparative Analysis and Improved Inferencecited by 2
- 2026ProtRLSearch: A Multi-Round Multimodal Protein Search Agent with Large Language Models Trained via Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
- 2026When Context Bites: Detecting RAG Poisoning via Document-Level Attention Collapsecited by 1
- 2025Protein as a Second Language for LLMscited by 0
- 2025g-DPO: Scalable Preference Optimization for Protein Language Modelscited by 0
6 more
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- 2026Know Your Scientist: KYC as Biosecurity Infrastructurecited by 0
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- 2026From Syntax to Semantics: Unveiling the Emergence of Chirality in SMILES Translation Modelscited by 0
- 2026Enhancing Protein Representation Learning via Manifold Restore Mixingcited by 0
- 2026The Illusion of Replacement: Rethinking Specialized Machine Learning Models in the Foundation Model Eracited by 0
- 2026The Illusion of Replacement: Rethinking Specialized Machine Learning Models in the Foundation Model Era29 Aug 2026
- 2026When Context Bites: Detecting RAG Poisoning via Document-Level Attention Collapse7 Aug 2026
- 2026Enhancing Protein Representation Learning via Manifold Restore Mixing21 Jun 2026
- 2026From Syntax to Semantics: Unveiling the Emergence of Chirality in SMILES Translation Models11 May 2026
- 2026ES-Merging: Biological MLLM Merging via Embedding Space Signals15 Mar 2026
- 2026ProtRLSearch: A Multi-Round Multimodal Protein Search Agent with Large Language Models Trained via Reinforcement Learning2 Mar 2026
- 2026Protein Language Models Diverge from Natural Language: Comparative Analysis and Improved Inference24 Feb 2026
- 2026Know Your Scientist: KYC as Biosecurity Infrastructure5 Feb 2026
- 2025Reflection Pretraining Enables Token-Level Self-Correction in Biological Sequence Models24 Dec 2025
- 2025g-DPO: Scalable Preference Optimization for Protein Language Models22 Oct 2025
- 2025Protein as a Second Language for LLMs13 Oct 2025
- 2025Resilient Biosecurity in the Era of AI-Enabled Bioweapons30 Aug 2025
6 more
- 2025A Survey of Scientific Large Language Models: From Data Foundations to Agent Frontiers28 Aug 2025
- 2025MD-LLM-1: A Large Language Model for Molecular Dynamics21 Jul 2025
- 2025Constrained Sliced Wasserstein Embedding2 Jun 2025
- 2025Advances and Challenges in Foundation Agents: From Brain-Inspired Intelligence to Evolutionary, Collaborative, and Safe Systems31 Mar 2025
- 2025Advances in Protein Representation Learning: Methods, Applications, and Future Directions20 Mar 2025
- 2025How Can Time Series Analysis Benefit From Multiple Modalities? A Survey and Outlook14 Mar 2025
- 2025How Can Time Series Analysis Benefit From Multiple Modalities? A Survey and Outlookcited by 20
- 2025MD-LLM-1: A Large Language Model for Molecular Dynamicscited by 7
- 2025Advances in Protein Representation Learning: Methods, Applications, and Future Directionscited by 3
- 2025Resilient Biosecurity in the Era of AI-Enabled Bioweaponscited by 3
- 2025Constrained Sliced Wasserstein Embeddingcited by 2
- 2026Protein Language Models Diverge from Natural Language: Comparative Analysis and Improved Inferencecited by 2
- 2026ProtRLSearch: A Multi-Round Multimodal Protein Search Agent with Large Language Models Trained via Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
- 2025Protein as a Second Language for LLMscited by 0
- 2026Know Your Scientist: KYC as Biosecurity Infrastructurecited by 0
- 2026From Syntax to Semantics: Unveiling the Emergence of Chirality in SMILES Translation Modelscited by 0
- 2026Enhancing Protein Representation Learning via Manifold Restore Mixingcited by 0
- 2026The Illusion of Replacement: Rethinking Specialized Machine Learning Models in the Foundation Model Eracited by 0
- 2026The Illusion of Replacement: Rethinking Specialized Machine Learning Models in the Foundation Model Era29 Aug 2026
- 2026Enhancing Protein Representation Learning via Manifold Restore Mixing21 Jun 2026
- 2026From Syntax to Semantics: Unveiling the Emergence of Chirality in SMILES Translation Models11 May 2026
- 2026ProtRLSearch: A Multi-Round Multimodal Protein Search Agent with Large Language Models Trained via Reinforcement Learning2 Mar 2026
- 2026Protein Language Models Diverge from Natural Language: Comparative Analysis and Improved Inference24 Feb 2026
- 2026Know Your Scientist: KYC as Biosecurity Infrastructure5 Feb 2026
- 2025Protein as a Second Language for LLMs13 Oct 2025
- 2025Resilient Biosecurity in the Era of AI-Enabled Bioweapons30 Aug 2025
- 2025MD-LLM-1: A Large Language Model for Molecular Dynamics21 Jul 2025
- 2025Constrained Sliced Wasserstein Embedding2 Jun 2025
- 2025Advances in Protein Representation Learning: Methods, Applications, and Future Directions20 Mar 2025
- 2025How Can Time Series Analysis Benefit From Multiple Modalities? A Survey and Outlook14 Mar 2025