Genome language models design working bacteriophages
A paper published in Science on 6 August 2026 described the generative design of novel bacteriophage genomes using genome language models. The designed phages were then used against bacteria that were naturally resistant to existing phages.
Why it mattered The work took generative biology past predicting the shape of a molecule to producing whole organisms that were then tested against live bacteria.
Corrections
- 2026-09-01 - The cited source title originally read “Generative design of novel bacteriophages…”; Crossref’s record for the published paper gives the title without “novel,” corrected to match. Verified against the publisher’s own bibliographic metadata (science.org itself refused direct fetches); date, authorship and the phage-resistant-bacteria result all check out.