Model reference · open weights
MorphEm is an open-weight embedding model from CaicedoLab. MorphEm (FP32) weighs 88 MB; the smallest configuration that runs it is RTX 3060 12 GB.
For self-hosting, compare this build's requirements below with the GPU you plan to rent.
Summary of the CaicedoLab/MorphEm model card, 2026-10-01
What it is
| Released by | CaicedoLab |
|---|---|
| Released | 2025-12-04 |
| Parameters | 44M |
| VRAM | 88 MB for the weights |
What it runs on
| Card | Runs | Memory |
|---|---|---|
| RTX 3060 12 GB | fits | 11.6 GB |
| RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB | fits | 15.4 GB |
| RTX 3090 24 GB | fits | 23.4 GB |
| RTX 4090 24 GB | fits | 23.4 GB |
| RTX 5090 32 GB | fits | 31.0 GB |
| L40S 48 GB | fits | 44.0 GB |
| A100 80 GB | fits | 78.2 GB |
| H100 80 GB | fits | 78.1 GB |
| RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96 GB | fits | 93.8 GB |
| DGX Spark (GB10) 128 GB unified | fits | 107 GB |
| H200 141 GB | fits | 138 GB |
| B200 180 GB | fits | 176 GB |
From the model card
MorphEm is a self supervised learning framework trained with the DINO Bag of Channels recipe on the entire CHAMMI-75 dataset. It serves as a benchmark for performance for self-supervised models.
Repository: https://github.com/CaicedoLab/CHAMMI-75
Demo: https://github.com/CaicedoLab/CHAMMI-75/tree/main/aws-tutorials
The model was pre-trained with a heterogenous dataset of microscopy images with the goal of obtaining cell morphology embeddings for biological applications.
The primary use of this model is feature extraction of cellular morphology in image-based biological experiments. The model takes single-channel images as input and produces feature vectors with discriminative information of cellular phenotypes. The input images should be segmented ahead of time; this model does not identify the location of cells automatically. The feature embeddings have been tested in single-cell analysis problems. If the images of interest are multi-channel, each channel can be processed independently and then the feature embeddings of all channels are concatenated for downstream applications. The applications of the embeddings produced by this model include basic biology research, functional genomics studies, drug discovery projects, among others.
This model is not useful for cell segmentation, its primary use is feature extraction only. The model should be use for analyzing imaging data in biological laboratories. It is not intented to be use in clinical practice or in diagnostic applications. The model should not be used for applications that involve biological weapons, or any other type of biological manipulation that could harm humans or the natural environment.
Use the code below to get started with the model.
from transformers import AutoModel
import torch
import torch.nn as nn
import torchvision
from torchvision import transforms as v2
import numpy as np
# Noise Injector transformation
class SaturationNoiseInjector(nn.Module):
def __init__(self, low=200, high=255):
super().__init__()
self.low = low
self.high = high
def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tensor:
channel = x[0].clone()
noise = torch.empty_like(channel).uniform_(self.low, self.high)
mask = (channel == 255).float()
noise_masked = noise * mask
channel[channel == 255] = 0
channel = channel + noise_masked
x[0] = channel
return x
# Self Normalize transformation
class PerImageNormalize(nn.Module):
def __init__(self, eps=1e-7):
super().__init__()
self.eps = eps
self.instance_norm = nn.InstanceNorm2d(
num_features=1,
affine=False,
track_running_stats=False,
eps=self.eps,
)
def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tensor:
if x.dim() == 3:
x = x.unsqueeze(0)
x = self.instance_norm(x)
if x.shape[0] == 1:
x = x.squeeze(0)
return x
# Load model
device = "cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu"
model = AutoModel.from_pretrained("CaicedoLab/MorphEm", trust_remote_code=True)
model.to(device).eval()
# Define transforms
transform = v2.Compose([
SaturationNoiseInjector(),
PerImageNormalize(),
v2.Resize(size=(224, 224), antialias=True),
])
# Generate random batch (N, C, H, W)
batch_size = 2
num_channels = 3
images = torch.randint(0, 256, (batch_size, num_channels, 512, 512), dtype=torch.float32)
print(f"Input shape: {images.shape} (N={batch_size}, C={num_channels}, H=512, W=512)")
print()
# Bag of Channels (BoC) - process each channel independently
with torch.no_grad():
batch_feat = []
images = images.to(device)
for c in range(images.shape[1]):
# Extract single channel: (N, C, H, W) -> (N, H, W)
single_channel = images[:, c, :, :]
# Apply transforms, add dimension 1 ((N, 1, H, W))
single_channel = transform(single_channel).unsqueeze(1)
# Extract features
output = model.forward_features(single_channel)
feat_temp = output["x_norm_clstoken"].cpu().detach().numpy()
batch_feat.append(feat_temp)
# Concatenate features from all channels
features = np.concatenate(batch_feat, axis=1)
print(f"Output shape: {features.shape}")
print(f" - Batch size (N): {features.shape[0]}")
print(f" - Feature dimension (C * feature_dim): {features.shape[1]}")
MorphEm was pre-trained on the entire CHAMMI-75 pre-training data. The CHAMMI-75 dataset consists of 75 heterogenous studies and 2.8 million multi-channel images.
We have utilized the self-supervised learning framework called DINO. We pre-trained a model which inputs a single channel one at a time. For evaluation, you would concatenate each channel specifically.
We used three transforms mainly for preprocessing: SaturationNoiseInjector(), SelfImageNormalize(), Resize(224,224)
# Noise Injector transformation
class SaturationNoiseInjector(nn.Module):
def __init__(self, low=200, high=255):
super().__init__()
self.low = low
self.high = high
def forward(self, x: torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tensor:
channel = x[0].clone()
noise = torch.empty_like(channel).uniform_(self.low, self.high)
mask = (channel == 255).float()
noise_masked = noise * mask
channel[channel == 255] = 0
channel = channel + noise_masked
x[0] = channel
return x
# Self Normalize transformation
class PerImageNormalize(nn.Module):
def __init__(sQuoted from the model card on Hugging Face. The full card is behind the Hugging Face link above.