Archive · 7 Aug 2026

AI Helps Scientists Create 16 New Viruses Targeting Resistant Bacteria

AI Helps Scientists Create 16 New Viruses Targeting Resistant Bacteria

Scientists used a smart computer program called artificial intelligence to design brand-new viruses.

But don't worry — these viruses cannot make people, animals, or plants sick.

They are called bacteriophages, and they only attack bacteria.

Phages have been studied for more than one hundred years because they can kill bad bacteria.

This makes them a promising alternative to antibiotics, which are medicines used to fight bacteria.

The scientists started with a natural phage and used AI tools named Evo 1 and Evo 2 to invent thousands of new viral designs.

Most of those designs did not work.

But after lots of laboratory testing, the team found 16 new phages that successfully infected drug-resistant E. coli bacteria.

These 16 phages have never existed in nature before.

Sources