A human subject has been injected with an AI-designed virus aiming to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria, so let's see how that turns out
An AI lab designed a virus, put it in a sick person, and then declined to say what happened.
A San Francisco biotech firm claims to have injected a patient with an AI-designed virus, the first of its kind, to combat an antibiotic-resistant infection. The company, Radical Numerics, developed bacteriophages using its Omnii-1 model, which edits the tail fiber protein of the T7 virus to target specific bacterial strains. The therapy, administered under a compassionate-use pathway authorized by the FDA, is aimed at patients with infections that have resisted both antibiotics and available phages.
However, the company has not disclosed the patient's outcome or the clinical course, citing privacy concerns. Despite the lack of peer-review and transparency, Radical Numerics stands by its claim, stating that the treatment is proprietary and intended for commercialization. The method's potential to shorten the time-consuming process of phage hunting has garnered interest from experts, but also concerns over the dual-use nature of the technology.
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