Asimov Press AI-Designed Phages
10 snips
Sep 17, 2025 Generative AI is making waves by designing viable bacteriophages. Researchers synthesized 285 genomes and discovered 16 AI-created phages, some outperforming their wild-type counterparts. The discussion dives into the intricacies of genome models and the fine-tuning process that led to these breakthroughs. Concerns about biosecurity and practical scaling limitations are also highlighted, along with the costs involved in synthetic biology. Exciting advancements in AI-driven functional design for the future are on the horizon!
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
AI-Designed Genomes Are Realized
- ARC Institute validated that generative AI can design viable genomes by building real bacteriophages from model outputs.
- This is the first reported case of AI-designed genomes functioning in living cells.
PHYX-174: Small But Historically Huge
- PHYX-174 is a tiny, historically important phage with a 5,000-base single-stranded DNA genome and overlapping genes.
- It infects non-pathogenic E. coli and was the first full genome sequenced by Fred Sanger in 1977.
Genome Language Models Can Extend Seeds
- EVO2 is a genome language model trained on trillions of nucleotides that can extend seed sequences into full genomes.
- Base models occasionally output phage-like sequences but are unreliable without fine-tuning and filtering.
