AI can now write genomes from scratch.
Arc Institute an NVIDIA just published Evo-2, the largest AI model for biology, trained on 9.3 trillion DNA base pairs spanning the entire tree of life.
it doesn’t just analyze genomes. it creates them 1/
Evo 2 generates mitochondrial, prokaryotic, and eukaryotic sequences at genome-scale
Evo 2 is FULLY OPEN, including model parameters, training code, inference code, and
the OpenGenome2 dataset LMFAO
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think of it as a DNA-focused LLM. instead of text, it generates genomic sequences. it reads and interprets complex DNA, including noncoding regions usually considered jink, generates entire chromosomes and new genomes, and predicts disease-causing mutations, even those not understood
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this is biology hacking
AI is moving beyond describing biology to designing it. this allows for synthetic life engineered from scratch, programmable genomes optimized by AI, potential new gene therapies, and lays the groundwork for whole-cell simulation.
biology is becoming a computational discipline
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it was trained on a dataset of 9.3 trillion base pairs from bacteria, archaea, eukaryotes, and bacteriophages
it processes up to 1 million base pairs in a single context window, covering entire chromosomes. it identifies evolutionary patterns previously unseen by humans
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Evo-2 has demonstrated practical generation abilities, creating synthetic yeast chromosomes, mitochondrial genomes, and minimal bacterial genomes.
this is computational design in action.
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Evo-2 understands noncoding DNA, which regulates gene expression and is involved in many genetic diseases.
it predicts the functional impact of mutations in these regions, achieving state-of-the-art performance on noncoding variant pathogenicity and BRCA1 variant classification.
this could lead to advances in precision medicine
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Evo-2 uses stripedhyena 2, combining convolution and attention mechanisms, not transformers.
it models DNA at multiple scales, capturing long-range interactions, and autonomously learns features like exon-intron boundaries and transcription factor binding sites without human guidance.
it’s not just memorizing
it’s understanding biology.
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Evo-2 predicts whether mutations are harmful or benign without specific training on human disease data.
WHAT
it outperforms specialized models on BRCA1 variants and handles noncoding mutations effectively, suggesting it has learned DNA’s fundamental principles
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Evo-2 generates DNA sequences that influence chromatin accessibility, controlling gene expression.
it has embedded simple Morse code into epigenomic designs as a proof of concept, not a practical application. this shows potential for designing programmable gene circuits.
make me blonde. thank you
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Evo-2 is FULLY OPEN SOURCE, including model parameters, training data, and code.
this will lead to massive widespread innovation in bioengineering, lowering barriers to genome design.
it’s a revolution moment for the field.
the era of biotech is here
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The Arc Institute aims to model entire cells, moving beyond DNA to whole organisms.
this could lead to AI creating new life forms and synthetic biology becoming AI-driven.
the future involves programming life at increasing scales
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three years ago, AI focused on chatbots.
now it generates genomes. soon, it will design complex biological systems. this is a new phase
humans are no longer just studying biology but rewriting its code.
biology’s future is computational. are you prepared?
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elon is right that collapsing birth rates are THE existential risk
the problem is that the real cause is not "career" or women or "housing costs"
the uncomfortable truth is that a huge share of people are already biologically sub-fertile and don’t even know it 1/
since the 1970s, global sperm concentration has halved.
HALVED
50% less in 50 years!!!
total sperm count is down SIXTY TWO PERCENT
the decline has accelerated to about 2.6% per year since 2000
this is a species-level signal
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on the female side, infertility cases have increased 84% since 1990, doubled in 40 years
more than 110 million women meet clinical infertility criteria now, and the age-standardized rate keeps increasing even after adjusting for population growth.
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yes, remove cost from sex and you uncouple it from bonding
remove bonding from reproduction, you get maternal circuitry firing without children
that energy doesn't vanish and it's redirected to ideologies which become surrogate children and parties surrogate husbands
but these are second-order, the first-order chain is biological:
testosterone decline → reduced male drive → collapse of provisioning → marriage becomes bad deal → women redirect instincts → ideology becomes child
you're not having sex anymore. she says she's tired, you feel rejected, she feels pressured. you both think the spark is gone and you're both wrong. here's what's actually happening in your bodies and what you can do about it 1/
she doesn't want sex, you don't feel appreciated, and you're basically roommates who occasionally argue. you think it's her fault, she thinks it's yours, and therapists keep saying you need better communication. you've tried talking and nothing changed.
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now, AI built a working calcium ion channel from scratch, a synthetic molecular gate that conducts charge through living cells
this is the first building block of an artificial synapse 1/
for decades, we have only been able to design proteins that folded
but ion selectivity (distinguishing Ca²⁺ from Na⁺) was untouchable
it demands atomic control at ~0.2 Å precision. miss by one atom, and it doesn't work
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now the Baker’s lab at the university of Washington just solved it
they used RFdiffusion, a generative deep-learning model that builds protein backbones from geometry
you input a carboxylate ring and get a new membrane channel
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first cousin marriages double the risk of birth defects, shave ~10 iq points off the offspring, and their ban by the church was one of the biggest drivers of europe’s rise.
but sure, let’s go back to being fucking troglodytes
i severely underestimated how bad things were in the UK
The next obvious step is saying that “marring an 8 years ago girl is encouraged to keep the woman from rebelling since she can be properly disciplined early and can bear enough kids”
In 1977 the first bacteriophage genome (ΦX174, 5.4 kb) was sequenced, then in 2003 in was synthesized from chemicals and now Evo, a genome language model, designed new ΦX174-like genomes that actually worked in bacteria
From reading to writing to designing life
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ΦX174 has 11 overlapping genes, regulatory motifs, packaging signals, and a spike protein that dictates host range.
one wrong mutation can collapse the system, which means they cannot be built like lego
Evo was able to generate sequences that rebooted into viable viruses.
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