Alterlab Esm

ESM: Evolutionary Scale Modeling

Overview

ESM provides state-of-the-art protein language models for understanding, generating, and designing proteins. This skill enables working with two model families: ESM3 for generative protein design across sequence, structure, and function, and ESM C for efficient protein representation learning and embeddings.

Core Capabilities

1. Protein Sequence Generation with ESM3

Generate novel protein sequences with desired properties using multimodal generative modeling.

When to use:

• Designing proteins with specific functional properties
• Completing partial protein sequences
• Generating variants of existing proteins
• Creating proteins with desired structural characteristics

Basic usage:

from esm.models.esm3 import ESM3
from esm.sdk.api import ESM3InferenceClient, ESMProtein, GenerationConfig

# Load model locally
model: ESM3InferenceClient = ESM3.from_pretrained("esm3-sm-open-v1").to("cuda")

# Create protein prompt
protein = ESMProtein(sequence="MPRT___KEND")  # '_' represents masked positions

# Generate completion
protein = model.generate(protein, GenerationConfig(track="sequence", num_steps=8))
print(protein.sequence)

For remote/cloud usage via Forge API:

from esm.sdk.forge import ESM3ForgeInferenceClient
from esm.sdk.api import ESMProtein, GenerationConfig

# Connect to Forge
model = ESM3ForgeInferenceClient(model="esm3-medium-2024-08", url="https://forge.evolutionaryscale.ai", token="<token>")

# Generate
protein = model.generate(protein, GenerationConfig(track="sequence", num_steps=8))

See references/esm3-api.md for detailed ESM3 model specifications, advanced generation configurations, and multimodal prompting examples.

2. Structure Prediction and Inverse Folding

Use ESM3's structure track for structure prediction from sequence or inverse folding (sequence design from structure).

Structure prediction:

from esm.sdk.api import ESM3InferenceClient, ESMProtein, GenerationConfig

# Predict structure from a complete sequence
protein = ESMProtein(sequence="MPRTKEINDAGLIVHSP")
protein_with_structure = model.generate(
    protein,
    # num_steps controls how many structure tokens are decoded per step;
    # use the sequence length (not a "_" count — the sequence is complete here)
    GenerationConfig(track="structure", num_steps=len(protein.sequence))
)

# Access predicted structure
coordinates = protein_with_structure.coordinates  # 3D coordinates
pdb_string = protein_with_structure.to_pdb()

Inverse folding (sequence from structure):

# Design sequence for a target structure
protein_with_structure = ESMProtein.from_pdb("target_structure.pdb")
protein_with_structure.sequence = None  # Remove sequence

# Generate sequence that folds to this structure
designed_protein = model.generate(
    protein_with_structure,
    GenerationConfig(track="sequence", num_steps=50, temperature=0.7)
)

3. Protein Embeddings with ESM C

Generate high-quality embeddings for downstream tasks like function prediction, classification, or similarity analysis.

When to use:

• Extracting protein representations for machine learning
• Computing sequence similarities
• Feature extraction for protein classification
• Transfer learning for protein-related tasks

Basic usage:

from esm.models.esmc import ESMC
from esm.sdk.api import ESMProtein, LogitsConfig

# Load ESM C model (note: local from_pretrained names use UNDERSCORES)
model = ESMC.from_pretrained("esmc_300m").to("cuda")

# Encode, then request embeddings via the logits() API
protein = ESMProtein(sequence="MPRTKEINDAGLIVHSP")
protein_tensor = model.encode(protein)
out = model.logits(protein_tensor, LogitsConfig(sequence=True, return_embeddings=True))

embeddings = out.embeddings   # (1, L+2, hidden_dim), incl. BOS/EOS tokens
logits = out.logits.sequence  # per-position amino-acid logits

Do NOT call model.forward(...) to get embeddings — forward returns a raw model output, not a usable representation tensor. Use model.logits(..., LogitsConfig(return_embeddings=True)).embeddings.

Batch processing:

# Encode multiple proteins and pull mean-pooled embeddings
proteins = [
    ESMProtein(sequence="MPRTKEIND"),
    ESMProtein(sequence="AGLIVHSPQ"),
    ESMProtein(sequence="KTEFLNDGR"),
]
cfg = LogitsConfig(sequence=True, return_embeddings=True)
embeddings_list = [
    model.logits(model.encode(p), cfg).embeddings.mean(dim=1) for p in proteins
]

See references/esm-c-api.md for ESM C model details, efficiency comparisons, and advanced embedding strategies.

4. Function Conditioning and Annotation

Use ESM3's function track to generate proteins with specific functional annotations or predict function from sequence.

Function-conditioned generation:

from esm.sdk.api import ESMProtein, FunctionAnnotation, GenerationConfig

# Create protein with desired function
protein = ESMProtein(
    sequence="_" * 200,  # Generate 200 residue protein
    function_annotations=[
        FunctionAnnotation(label="fluorescent_protein", start=50, end=150)
    ]
)

# Generate sequence with specified function
functional_protein = model.generate(
    protein,
    GenerationConfig(track="sequence", num_steps=200)
)

5. Chain-of-Thought Generation

Iteratively refine protein designs using ESM3's chain-of-thought generation approach.

from esm.sdk.api import GenerationConfig

# Multi-step refinement
protein = ESMProtein(sequence="MPRT" + "_" * 100 + "KEND")

# Step 1: Generate initial structure
config = GenerationConfig(track="structure", num_steps=50)
protein = model.generate(protein, config)

# Step 2: Refine sequence based on structure
config = GenerationConfig(track="sequence", num_steps=50, temperature=0.5)
protein = model.generate(protein, config)

# Step 3: Predict function
config = GenerationConfig(track="function", num_steps=20)
protein = model.generate(protein, config)

6. Batch Processing with Forge API

Process multiple proteins efficiently using Forge's async executor.

from esm.sdk.forge import ESM3ForgeInferenceClient
import asyncio

client = ESM3ForgeInferenceClient(model="esm3-medium-2024-08", token="<token>")

# Async batch processing
async def batch_generate(proteins_list):
    tasks = [
        client.async_generate(protein, GenerationConfig(track="sequence"))
        for protein in proteins_list
    ]
    return await asyncio.gather(*tasks)

# Execute
proteins = [ESMProtein(sequence=f"MPRT{'_' * 50}KEND") for _ in range(10)]
results = asyncio.run(batch_generate(proteins))

See references/forge-api.md for detailed Forge API documentation, authentication, rate limits, and batch processing patterns.

Model Selection Guide

ESM3 Models (Generative):

• esm3-sm-open-v1 (1.4B) - Open weights, local usage, good for experimentation
• esm3-medium-2024-08 (7B) - Best balance of quality and speed (Forge only)
• esm3-large-2024-03 (98B) - Highest quality, slower (Forge only)

ESM C Models (Embeddings):

• esmc_300m (30 layers) - Lightweight, fast inference; open weights, runs locally
• esmc_600m (36 layers) - Balanced performance; open weights, runs locally
• esmc-6b-2024-12 (80 layers) - Maximum representation quality; Forge/Biohub API only

Naming gotcha: local ESMC.from_pretrained(...) names use underscores (esmc_300m, esmc_600m). The Forge/Biohub client strings use hyphens with a date (e.g. esmc-6b-2024-12).

Selection criteria:

• Local development/testing: Use esm3-sm-open-v1 or esmc_300m
• Production quality: Use esm3-medium-2024-08 via Forge
• Maximum accuracy: Use esm3-large-2024-03 or esmc-6b-2024-12
• High throughput: Use Forge API with batch executor
• Cost optimization: Use smaller models, implement caching strategies

Installation

Basic installation (pin the major version — the SDK is alpha and API-unstable across minors):

uv pip install "esm>=3.1,<3.2"

With Flash Attention (recommended for faster GPU inference):

uv pip install flash-attn --no-build-isolation

The Forge/Biohub client (ESM3ForgeInferenceClient) ships inside the esm package — no extra install. Obtain an API token at https://forge.evolutionaryscale.ai

Common Workflows

For detailed examples and complete workflows, see references/workflows.md which includes:

• Novel GFP design with chain-of-thought
• Protein variant generation and screening
• Structure-based sequence optimization
• Function prediction pipelines
• Embedding-based clustering and analysis

References

This skill includes comprehensive reference documentation:

• references/esm3-api.md - ESM3 model architecture, API reference, generation parameters, and multimodal prompting
• references/esm-c-api.md - ESM C model details, embedding strategies, and performance optimization
• references/forge-api.md - Forge platform documentation, authentication, batch processing, and deployment
• references/workflows.md - Complete examples and common workflow patterns

These references contain detailed API specifications, parameter descriptions, and advanced usage patterns. Load them as needed for specific tasks.

Best Practices

For generation tasks:

• Start with smaller models for prototyping (esm3-sm-open-v1)
• Use temperature parameter to control diversity (0.0 = deterministic, 1.0 = diverse)
• Implement iterative refinement with chain-of-thought for complex designs
• Validate generated sequences with structure prediction or wet-lab experiments

For embedding tasks:

• Batch process sequences when possible for efficiency
• Cache embeddings for repeated analyses
• Normalize embeddings when computing similarities
• Use appropriate model size based on downstream task requirements

For production deployment:

• Use Forge API for scalability and latest models
• Implement error handling and retry logic for API calls
• Monitor token usage and implement rate limiting
• Consider AWS SageMaker deployment for dedicated infrastructure

Resources and Documentation

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/evolutionaryscale/esm
• Forge Platform: https://forge.evolutionaryscale.ai
• Scientific Paper: Hayes et al., Science (2025) - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ads0018
• Blog Posts:
  • ESM3 Release: https://www.evolutionaryscale.ai/blog/esm3-release
  • ESM C Launch: https://www.evolutionaryscale.ai/blog/esm-cambrian
• Community: Slack community at https://bit.ly/3FKwcWd
• Model Weights: HuggingFace EvolutionaryScale organization

Responsible Use

ESM is designed for beneficial applications in protein engineering, drug discovery, and scientific research. Follow the Responsible Biodesign Framework (https://responsiblebiodesign.ai/) when designing novel proteins. Consider biosafety and ethical implications of protein designs before experimental validation.