Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40746431›Full record

SynthesisFrontiers in artificial intelligence2025

Visible neural networks for multi-omics integration: a critical review.

David Antony Selby, Rashika Jakhmola, Maximilian Sprang, Gerrit Großmann, Hind Raki, Niloofar Maani, Daria Pavliuk, Jan Ewald, Sebastian Vollmer

Abstract readSystematic Review
In one paragraph

Synthesis in Frontiers in artificial intelligence, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Using Biological Networks to Guide Biomedical Prediction.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

David Antony Selby *Data Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Rashika Jakhmola *Data Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Maximilian Sprang *Data Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Gerrit GroßmannData Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Hind RakiData Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Niloofar MaaniData Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Daria PavliukData Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.
Jan EwaldCenter for Scalable Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence (ScaDS.AI) Dresden/Leipzig, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.
Sebastian VollmerData Science and its Applications, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Kaiserslautern, Germany.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Biomarker discovery and drug response prediction are central to personalized medicine, driving demand for predictive models that also offer biological insights. Biologically informed neural networks (BINNs), also referred to as visible neural networks (VNNs), have recently emerged as a solution to this goal. BINNs or VNNs are neural networks whose inter-layer connections are constrained based on prior knowledge from gene ontologies and pathway databases. These sparse models enhance interpretability by embedding prior knowledge into their architecture, ideally reducing the space of learnable functions to those that are biologically meaningful. Methods: This systematic review-the first of its kind-identified 86 recent papers implementing BINNs/VNNs. We analyzed these papers to highlight key trends in architectural design, data sources and evaluation methodologies. Results: Our analysis reveals a growing adoption of BINNs/VNNs. However, this growth is apparently juxtaposed with a lack of standardized, terminology, computational tools and benchmarks. Conclusion: BINNs/VNNs represent a promising approach for integrating biological knowledge into predictive models for personalized medicine. Addressing the current deficiencies in standardization and tooling is important for widespread adoption and further progress in the field.

Indexed as

deep learningexplainable AIgene regulatory networksinterpretable modelsmachine learningmulti-omics integrationneural networkspathways

Identifiers

PMID40746431
PMCPMC12310660

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.