GFMBench-API: A Standardized Interface for Benchmarking Genomic Foundation Models
Journal:
bioRxiv
Published Date:
Feb 19, 2026
Abstract
The rapid scaling of Genomic Foundation Models (GFMs) has created a critical need for standardized evaluation frameworks. Current benchmarking practices are often fragmented, relying on model-specific preprocessing and inconsistent metric implementations that hinder reproducible comparisons. We present GFMBench-API, a high-level Python interface designed to unify the evaluation lifecycle of GFMs. GFMBench-API provides a modular 'middleware' architecture that decouples model-specific tokenization and embedding logic from task-specific data streams and performance metrics. By standardizing the input/output schemas for common genomic tasks, such as regulatory element prediction, variant effect scoring, and long-range interaction mapping, GFMBench-API enables researchers to integrate new models or tasks with minimal 'glue code'. Our interface ensures mathematical consistency across evaluations, providing a robust foundation for the transparent and systematic benchmarking of GFMs.
