A Model-Centric Review of Deep Learning for Protein Design

Abstract: Deep learning has transformed protein design, enabling accurate structure prediction, sequence optimization, and de novo protein generation. Advances in single-chain protein structure prediction via AlphaFold2, RoseTTAFold, ESMFold, and others have achieved near-experimental accuracy, inspiring successive work extended to biomolecular complexes via AlphaFold Multimer, RoseTTAFold All-Atom, AlphaFold 3, Chai-1, Boltz-1 and others. Generative models such as ProtGPT2, ProteinMPNN, and RFdiffusion have enabled sequence and backbone design beyond natural evolution-based limitations. More recently, joint sequence-structure co-design models, including ESM3, have integrated both modalities into a unified framework, resulting in improved designability. Despite these advances, challenges still exist pertaining to modeling sequence-structure-function relationships and ensuring robust generalization beyond the regions of protein space spanned by the training data. Future advances will likely focus on joint sequence-structure-function co-design frameworks that are able to model the fitness landscape more effectively than models that treat these modalities independently. Current capabilities, coupled with the dizzying rate of progress, suggest that the field will soon enable rapid, rational design of proteins with tailored structures and functions that transcend the limitations imposed by natural evolution. In this review, we discuss the current capabilities of deep learning methods for protein design, focusing on some of the most revolutionary and capable models with respect to their functionality and the applications that they enable, leading up to the current challenges of the field and the optimal path forward.