FlexiTAC enables controllable PROTAC linker generation across diverse structural settings using a Bayesian flow network with posterior guidance

Authors

Li, Y., Zhao, Y., Zhou, L., Huang, C., Xu, Q., Chen, Y., Qin, Z., Fan, K., Yang, J., Cao, D.

Abstract

Linker chemistry and conformation are central determinants of PROTAC activity, shaping ternary-complex geometry, cooperativity, target-lysine presentation and cellular permeability. Existing linker generators often lack explicit control over linker flexibility, require predefined attachment sites and linker lengths, or produce structures that demand substantial geometric correction, limiting their utility in practical PROTAC design. Here we introduce FlexiTAC, a Bayesian flow network that jointly generates linker atom types and coordinates from the warhead and E3-ligase-ligand contexts. We also assemble PROTAC-3D, a quality-controlled collection of 63,554 component-resolved PROTAC structures for model training, and PROTAC-Bench, which covers molecular quality, fragment preservation, geometric fidelity, conformational stability, fragment awareness, rediscovery and sampling efficiency. Compared to the best 3D baseline models, FlexiTAC improves validity by 12.0-12.7% and achieves the highest PoseBusters pass rate of 79.5%-80.0%. A differentiable guidance module shifted generated linkers along a conformational ensemble-derived rigidity axis without retraining the generator. In silico case studies further show that the model can accept crystal-derived, redocked or predicted structural inputs. Together, FlexiTAC, PROTAC-3D and PROTAC-Bench establish an integrated and reproducible framework for data-driven PROTAC linker design, combining controllable structure-conditioned generation with standardized training data and evaluation protocols. This framework expands the linker chemical and conformational space accessible to computational exploration, provides a foundation for future method development and enables the systematic generation of structure-conditioned linker designs with tunable conformational flexibility.

Preprint server: bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 31 Aug 2026.

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