Publications
Science (New York, N.Y.)Oct 2025 |
390
(
6768
),
82-87
DOI:
10.1126/science.adu8578

Strengthening nucleic acid biosecurity screening against generative protein design tools

Wittmann, Bruce J; Alexanian, Tessa; Bartling, Craig; Beal, Jacob; Clore, Adam; Diggans, James; Flyangolts, Kevin; Gemler, Bryan T; Mitchell, Tom; Murphy, Steven T; Wheeler, Nicole E; Horvitz, Eric
Product Used
Genes
Abstract
Advances in artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted protein engineering are enabling breakthroughs in the life sciences but also introduce new biosecurity challenges. Synthesis of nucleic acids is a choke point in AI-assisted protein engineering pipelines. Thus, an important focus for efforts to enhance biosecurity given AI-enabled capabilities is bolstering methods used by nucleic acid synthesis providers to screen orders. We evaluated the ability of open-source AI-powered protein design software to create variants of proteins of concern that could evade detection by the biosecurity screening tools used by nucleic acid synthesis providers, identifying a vulnerability where AI-redesigned sequences could not be detected reliably by current tools. In response, we developed and deployed patches, greatly improving detection rates of synthetic homologs more likely to retain wild type-like function.
Product Used
Genes

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