Geneticist George Church stops advising Radical Numerics after the AI startup leaves unnamed the partner that produced viruses used to treat an infection
Geneticist George Church stops advising Radical Numerics after the AI startup leaves unnamed the partner that produced viruses used to treat an infection
On November 6, The New York Times reported that the biotechnology company Tabula Bioscience had conducted laboratory experiments and prepared a mixture of phages (viruses that kill bacteria) that was administered to a patient. Tabula said it had led the phage treatment.
On October 20, Radical announced that a patient had received a mixture containing phage variants designed by its Omnii-1 neural network. The bacteria causing the infection were resistant to antibiotics and available phages.
A phage’s ability to infect a particular bacterium depends in part on the protein it uses to recognize the bacterium’s surface. In its technical report, Radical described how Omnii-1, trained on DNA sequences and results from experiments with bacteria, proposes variants of the gene encoding this protein. Researchers use the proposed DNA sequences to produce phages in the laboratory and test their activity: to kill the target bacterium, a virus must attach to it and replicate inside it. According to the report, the mixture containing Omnii-1 variants killed the patient’s bacteria in vitro and was subsequently administered to the patient. Radical also uses data on the activity of the resulting phages to help the model select variants for further experiments.
According to the newspaper, both companies agree that the mixture contained phages designed by Radical and phages supplied by Tabula. Tabula performed the laboratory experiments; Radical’s researchers had no contact with the treating physicians. Radical CEO Eric Nguyen confirmed: “We worked closely with the Tabula team for seven months.” Tabula is also developing AI-assisted DNA design, with the aim of generating new sequences faster than bacteria develop resistance.
Nguyen attributed the omission of Tabula to a contractual agreement: he said the parties had agreed to keep their collaboration confidential and coordinate public statements about successful treatment. Church, a Harvard University geneticist who advised both companies, called this explanation “very weak in terms of common sense and basic ethics.” On November 5, he stopped advising Radical.