Reacción a "AI designs functional bacteriophages from scratch"

The study is of a very high standard. The laboratory leading it is at the forefront of generative AI applied to biology. In my laboratory, Synbio Lab at the UPF in Barcelona, we are regular users of the generative AI tools developed by Hie and colleagues. Their DNA LLMs are the most advanced in the world.

The experiments designed to demonstrate the results experimentally appear to be very well conducted.
This is another step towards the bio-design capabilities of generative AI. We are witnessing a very significant turning point. For the first time in history, we are beginning to design biology on a computer. Until now, we could read and rewrite, but we could not generate new synthetic content. Thanks to AI, we are beginning to move away from relying exclusively on bioprospecting. It has been demonstrated that we can already design relatively small synthetic biological systems such as proteins (synthetic binders, synthetic Cas9, synthetic transposases or synthetic enzymes); here, they go a step further by designing an entire synthetic phage comprising more than ten proteins and a genome of thousands of bases. It is an exciting time.

The study appears to be very robust. Being able to design biology on a computer allows us to dream of exciting possibilities for tackling humanity’s greatest challenges. Synthetic binders have been created that mimic the antibodies used in immunotherapy; for example, synthetic Cas9 enzymes are being applied to treat genetic disorders, whilst synthetic phages could lead to potential antibiotic therapies.