SpectraVision

The paper is under review.

[Github Repo] | [Model Collection] | [Dataset]

Abstract

Converting irregularly spaced mass spectrometry (MS/MS) data into computable representation is a foundational architectural choice that sets the upper bound for both computational efficiency and model accuracy. Existing MS/MS representations for machine-learning (ML) models can be divided into two parts: (1) fine-grained binned vectors that preserve spectra resolution but are sparse; (2) transformer-sequence encoders that can avoid sparse binning but must process variable-length inputs with continuous, shift-sensitive m/z coordinates. Critically, both strategies trade computational efficiency for representation quality, creating significant time and memory bottlenecks. In this paper, we present SpectraVision, which encodes MS/MS spectra into compact image-tensors, preserves high-resolution m/z information and supports efficient learning. Efficacy of these image-tensors to extract spatial features from the spectrum image is demonstrated with a CNN model and a Vision Transformer to validate the ability of image-tensors to preserve long-range spectral dependencies. Both CNN and ViT models then exhibit superior Top-k peptide-retrieval accuracy when compared with binned-Vector and transformer-sequence encoders. An added advantage of SpectraVision based models, necessary for training large models, is usage of 87% fewer parameters (~6.4M versus 51.8M) than binned-vector approach. Zero-shot evaluation on multiple species, non-tryptic peptides, and immunopeptides showcases the robustness of vision-based models to extend and improve ML models for MS-based proteomics.

Peptide retrieval search

Install uv, then clone the repository and search an MGF against a peptide FASTA:

git clone https://github.com/pcdslab/SpectraVision.git
cd SpectraVision
uv sync
uv run python retrieval_search/run_search.py \
  --mgf retrieval_search/sample_data/sample_data.mgf \
  --fasta retrieval_search/sample_data/sample_fasta.fasta \
  --output-dir outputs/search \
  --ppm-tolerance 100 \
  --download_weight=true

The command downloads the default SpectraVision-3C-CNN safetensors weights and saves assigned peptides to outputs/search/matches.csv. The search considers peptides within 100 ppm of the spectrum's precursor m/z. Select another checkpoint with --model SpectraVision-1C-CNN or --model SpectraVision-PeakViT.

Cite

The paper is under review. As soon as it is accepted, we will update this section.

License

This model and associated code are released under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and may only be used for non-commercial, academic research purposes with proper attribution. Any commercial use, sale, or other monetization of this model and its derivatives, which include models trained on outputs from the model or datasets created from the model, is prohibited and requires prior approval. Downloading the model requires prior registration on Hugging Face and agreeing to the terms of use. By downloading this model, you agree not to distribute, publish or reproduce a copy of the model. If another user within your organization wishes to use the model, they must register as an individual user and agree to comply with the terms of use. Users may not attempt to re-identify the deidentified data used to develop the underlying model. If you are a commercial entity, please contact the corresponding author.

Contact

For any additional questions or comments, contact Fahad Saeed (fsaeed@fiu.edu).