Application of deep metric learning to molecular graph similarity

Abstract

Graph based methods are increasingly important in chemistry and drug discovery, with applications ranging from QSAR to molecular generation. Combining graph neural networks and deep metric learning concepts, we expose a framework for quantifying molecular graph similarity based on distance between learned embeddings separate from any endpoint. Using a minimal definition of similarity, and data from the ZINC database of public compounds, this work demonstrate the properties of the embedding and its suitability for a range of applications, among them a novel reconstruction loss method for training deep molecular auto-encoders. Finally, we compare the applications of the embedding to standard practices, with a focus on known failure points and edge cases; concluding that our approach can be used in conjunction to existing methods.