Most AI work in biology has focused on designing proteins, but large genome models have proven capable of generating DNA sequences that encode functional proteins and mimic complex gene structures. Researchers at Stanford University have now used these models to design genomes of viruses that infect bacteria.
The resulting viruses are closely related to known viruses but carry distinct features that would be difficult to evolve naturally. The researchers caution that similar AI tools could eventually be adapted to design viruses that target vertebrates, and suggest preparing for that possibility now.
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