LBS Research Highlighted at UFMG Knowledge Week

🏆🧬 The Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Systems (LBS) at DCC/UFMG has yet another reason to celebrate! The work "Comparative Analysis of Deep Learning Architectures for Predicting the Impact of Mutations on Protein-Protein Interactions" received the Grand Prize for Technological Initiation and Innovation at UFMG's 35th Scientific Initiation Week, during the 2026 Knowledge Week.

The research explores different deep learning approaches for the analysis of protein-protein interactions, comparing Protein Language Models (ESM-2) and Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). While language models learn patterns from protein sequences, GNNs allow representing and exploring structural relationships through graphs. Comparing these approaches helps investigate different representation and learning strategies for problems in Structural Bioinformatics.

The work was developed by Ana Luísa Araújo Bastos, under the supervision of Prof. Raquel C. de Melo-Minardi, Ph.D. and co-supervision of Adenilson Arcanjo.

This recognition celebrates the work developed and reinforces the importance of integrating artificial intelligence, bioinformatics and scientific innovation. Congratulations to the authors and everyone involved in this achievement! 👏