# scBench-Long: Verifiable Benchmarking of Long-Horizon Single-Cell Biology

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.26563 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.26563/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 25 Jun 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arena](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05685/) (2023)
- [Let's Verify Step by Step](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.20050/) (2023)
- [G-Eval: NLG Evaluation using GPT-4 with Better Human Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.16634/) (2023)
- [Large Language Models are not Fair Evaluators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17926/) (2023)
- [LAB-Bench: Measuring Capabilities of Language Models for Biology Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10362/) (2024)
- [BixBench: a Comprehensive Benchmark for LLM-based Agents in Computational Biology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00096/) (2025)
- [SpatialBench: Can Agents Analyze Real-World Spatial Biology Data?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.21907/) (2025)
- [Verifiable Benchmarking of Long-Horizon Spatial Biology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.28065/) (2026)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Are We Measuring Scientific Intelligence? Rethinking the Evaluation of AI Scientists](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.04915/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Single-cell studies require analysts to convert raw measurements into specific biological claims through multi-step workflows and integration of metadata, assay context, and auxiliary evidence. Existing AI-biology benchmarks largely measure broad knowledge, executable workflows, or local analysis steps. We introduce scBench-Long, a benchmark for long-horizon single-cell biology in which agents must recover scientific conclusions from raw or near-raw data without prescribed methods. The benchmark contains 21 evaluations spanning melanoma CD8 T-cell reactivity, CD8 RNA+ATAC regulatory inference, human--monkey chimera development, KRAS-driven lung tumor aging, and lethal COVID-19 lung pathology. Tasks cover paired scRNA/TCR sequencing, RNA and chromatin profiling, cross-species transcriptomics, combinatorial scRNA-seq, single-nucleus RNA-seq, immune repertoires, ortholog maps, ligand--receptor resources, and validation evidence. Candidate claims are reproduced, reviewed, and converted into controlled answer vocabularies with deterministic grading and trajectory rubrics. Across 1,068 completed trajectories, the strongest model--harness pair passes 16/63 runs (25.4%). scBench-Long evaluates whether agents can move beyond local analysis steps and make complex scientific claims that are supported by single-cell data.