AI-designed virus given to a human patient for the first time

The viruses, known as bacteriophages, infect and kill bacteria. Unlike antibiotics, they can target specific bacteria while leaving beneficial bacteria largely untouched.

The treatment was developed by Radical Numerics, a company that uses AI to study and design biological systems. Its AI model, Omnii-1, helped create virus variants selected to target the bacteria causing the patient's infection.

Laboratory tests showed that a mixture of the AI-designed viruses eliminated the patient's bacteria. Doctors then administered the experimental treatment under a special permission process for patients with serious conditions who have no satisfactory treatment alternatives.

The company has not disclosed the patient's condition after treatment or other clinical details to protect their privacy. It also stressed that the treatment has not been approved for wider medical use and that one patient's case cannot establish its safety or effectiveness.

The approach could offer another option for patients whose infections no longer respond to antibiotics. However, researchers must still develop reliable ways to design and test treatments for individual infections before the method can become more widely available.

Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that Kazakh schoolers built an AI platform to translate sign language in real time.