J. Craig Venter

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Pioneer of synthetic genomics, commenting on AI-designed genomes

Stanford and Arc Institute researchers used an AI called Evo to write genetic code for 302 bacteriophage viruses from scratch. Sixteen of them worked—they replicated, killed bacteria, and some even outperformed the natural virus they were modeled on. It's the first time a machine has designed complete, functional genomes without human input on gene selection or arrangement.

Updated May 19