Researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University have built a laboratory in which a team of AI agents designs and runs DNA experiments from a single typed prompt, with people stepping in only to restock reagents and service the hardware, according to a paper published this week in Nature.
Robots run this laboratory in Japan — and are changing how scientists work | NatureThe system, called AutoDNA, moves samples between instruments with robotic arms and can operate more than 20 types of equipment. A single project can involve thousands of operations, including synthesizing and sequencing DNA, Nature's news report said. "An experiment is designed and executed from start to finish by a team of AI agents, following a simple prompt from a human operator," it added.
The Nature paper reports four test applications. The system matched expert-optimized yields in enzymatic DNA synthesis, ran concurrent protocols 3.2 times faster, completed a full DNA data-storage cycle with exact recovery of the original digital content, and identified and validated a clinically detected KRAS G13D cancer mutation. In one demonstration, the researchers had it encode a quote often misattributed to Stephen Hawking, "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change," into DNA's four letters: A, C, G and T.
READ MORE AT SOURCE »
« Back to The Culture War
