Work

A high-speed attention network for MHC-bound peptide identification and 3D modeling

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: We developed SwiftMHC, an ultra-fast and accurate structure-based framework for peptide-MHC (pMHC) modeling and binding affinity prediction. Using task-specific deep learning trained on physics-derived synthetic data, SwiftMHC predicts pMHC binding affinities in 0.009 s per case on a single A100 GPU when running in batch mode, offering improved speed compared with leading sequence-based tools such as netMHCpan and MHCflurry while maintaining competitive accuracy. In addition, SwiftMHC generates all-atom 3D pMHC structures with a median Cα-RMSD of 1.32 Å against crystallographic benchmarks, matching or exceeding state-of-the-art methods such as AlphaFold2-finetune but at a lower computational cost. Optimized for HLA-A∗02:01 9-mer peptides but readily extensible to other alleles, SwiftMHC unites structural insight with high-throughput scalability to accelerate safe and effective epitope discovery in cancer immunotherapy.

Source: Cell Reports Methods

DOI: 10.1016/j.crmeth.2026.101364