Computationally Efficient Bayesian Estimation of Graphical Networks for Omics Data.

Publication date: Jun 30, 2026

Graphical networks are useful, widely used modeling approaches to represent complex biological processes with biological measurements generated by platforms such as mass spectrometry. Bayesian analyses of graphical networks for omics data have several advantages over their frequentist counterparts such as the inclusion of prior knowledge in the estimation of models. However, Bayesian approaches to date have only been feasible for data with a couple of hundred biomolecules due to prohibitive computational time, but omics data often contain tens of thousands of biomolecules. Here, we present and illustrate a more computationally efficient approach named BPlane (Bayesian PseudoLikelihood-based Algorithm for Network Estimation) to extend Bayesian modeling capabilities for larger-sized data sets, such as most untargeted proteomics data. Via simulation, we demonstrate that BPlane produces substantial computational savings over a current state-of-the-art Bayesian algorithm while maintaining competitive edge detection accuracy. We further demonstrate the computational benefit of BPlane on a SARS-CoV-2 proteomics data set with 7000 proteins.

Original Article