posted in Technology
AI designs a novel E. coli killer
cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1318517/artificial-intelligence-genomic-language-model-used-to-design-brand-new-viruses-not-foun
www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1138470Using AI, researchers have designed complete, functional bacteriophage genomes from scratch and tested them against bacteria that had evolved resistance to a natural bacteriophage. Their work marks a step toward generative systems capable of engineering entire biological systems rather than individual genes or small genetic systems, while also raising important biosafety and biosecurity concerns.
EurekAlert!AI system designs functional bacteriophages from scratchUsing AI, researchers have designed complete, functional bacteriophage genomes from scratch and tested them against bacteria that had evolved resistance to a natural bacteriophage. Their work marks a step toward generative systems capable of engineering entire biological systems rather than individual genes or small genetic systems, while also raising important biosafety and biosecurity concerns. “[The authors] engage with biosafety and biosecurity questions more deliberately than most developers of powerful biological AI models,” write Thomas Inglesby and Moritz Hanke in a related Perspective. Advances in DNA sequencing and synthesis have made it increasingly possible to read and write entire genomes, but designing a functional genome from scratch remains extraordinarily difficult because genes, regulatory sequences, and other elements interact in highly complex ways. Here, Samuel King and colleagues introduce an approach to designing functional genomes that combines the E