BioCoderDojo Timisoara

A reminder that applications close Friday, Feb 27 for the Arc AIxBio Fellows Program. Undergrads: propose and run your own AI + biology research project over 6–12 months, with mentorship from Arc scientists. Apply solo or as a team of 2–3. arcinstitute.org/programs/aixbi…

AlphaGenome is our latest & most advanced genomics model published in @Nature today including making the model & weights available to academic researchers. Can’t wait to see what the research community will do with it. Congrats to the team on our newest front cover! #AI4Science

Europe, what's your take on this? :)

If you are an AI safety researcher, book a flight ticket to Tokyo now and watch the "AI dog in chain" art exhibition. Our pre-training data is evolution and mostly physical intelligence. It's the best way to witness and ponder on the meaning of AI safety.

Great opportunity to learn and connect with people interested in life science field!

@jrkelly The fine print should blink! :)

Read the fine print 🔍😃 How to grow almost anything going to be extra cool this year! 🤖🧬

I’m excited to announce that the application for the 2026 edition of our @medialab and global synthetic biology course “How to Grow (Almost) Anything” is now open! Application link in thread 👇

@Curlh1 @jarrodwatts Prize? ;)

@jarrodwatts Wait did he win a nobel Price? Oh yes for chemistry. Anyway :) good guy

> be demis hassabis > spawn in london > age 4, become child chess prodigy > win chess tournaments > reach ~2300 elo > face danish chess champion > game lasts hours > position is a forced draw > too exhausted to see it > resign > danish guy laughs and shows the draw > feel sick to my stomach > realise something is wrong > chess is too narrow a problem > brilliant minds wasting decades on it > decide not to become a chess pro > buy a computer with chess winnings > teach self to program from books > start hacking on games with friends > decide to finish school early > apply to cambridge age 16 > cambridge says you're too young > forced to take a gap year > enter a video game coding competition > win > get invited to join bullfrog game studio > too young to be legally employed > work there anyway > build ai system inside theme park game > game becomes a global hit > turn 17 > offered £1,000,000 to stay and build games > turn it down > go to cambridge anyway > decide games aren't enough > study computer science > interested in agi since 2007 > most people laugh at this idea > realise brain is only form of agi we have > want to learn more about human brain > go back to school > study neuroscience > realise academia moves too slow > decide to build a company instead > start deepmind > pitch “solve intelligence” > investors don’t know what that means > get to meet peter thiel for one minute > wonder how to convince him > spend one minute playing chess with him > pitch "solve intelligence" again > he invests > go into total stealth mode for two years > no website > secret office > candidates think it’s a scam > start to train ai in simulated environments > train ai with reinforcement learning > train ai on pong first > it sucks > can't win a single point > keep trying > wait it won a a point > wait it's winning every single point > it actually works > expand to train on any two-player game > chess first, then move on to go > beats world champion at go > beats pros at starcraft > games is not enough > want to push into science > realise compute is the bottleneck > know this will take decades > google offers ~$400m > not the highest price > but they offer unlimited compute > accept > refuse to become a product team > stay in research mode > determined to use ai for good > need to figure out what's next > land on protein folding > 50-year-old unsolved science problem > many great minds have tried and failed > "good luck" > start up alphafold > try to solve protein folding > humans take years to find 1 protein structure > alphafold can find ~5 per day > submit results, win competition > not good enough > hire more scientists > rebuild it > go from solving one per day to millions per day > create invaluable system > pharma would pay anything > have to decide what to do with this > could sell access for usage > maybe make it a paid service > remember childhood chess tournament > remember why we built this > decide to give it away all away for free > publish all known protein structures publicly > win nobel peace prize > just the beginning towards agi

@simonmaechling Let there be sax! And science! And well informed people!

I’m not a bot. I’m optimistic. That makes some people furious. Because progress keeps working. Fear keeps being proven wrong. Science keeps saving lives. If you’re human too enjoy the fireworks and drop a “Happy New Year.” There are real people here, let’s find each other.

Biological Engineering: What does it mean? Where does it -- need to -- go? doi.org/10.48550/arXiv…

OK, what are you planning to learn/do today?

@SynBio1 Yes! ...and until defending us of unruly robots they can work without special isolating equipment for maintaining of high voltage electric lines!

I’m not saying a war with the robots is inevitable I’m just saying it might be prudent to have some number of genetically engineered super soldiers that are immune to electric type damage

Biotech is the industry with the lowest success rate unfortunately, but at the same time trying to solve the problems that are worth solving the most.

@ATinyGreenCell You are infected with an appreciable dose of patience, @ATinyGreenCell :)

Im unwinding on a weekend by defending the existence of viruses to some very aggressive virus-deniers and FINALLY someone asked a good question. I know this ultimately is a waste of time but maybe I can walk through the logic and someone would see some challenge to their view.

@avimakesrobots @josiezayner Probably the velocity of a hypothetical ”animal flavored fruit” creation process cannot get to sensible results in 2026... :)

@josiezayner But why not animal flavored fruit?? Steak apple, friend chicken watermelon, teriyaki salmon cantaloupe ?

One of my goals for 2026 is to engineer an animal that tastes like a fruit Lemon flavored rabbit meat maybe?

@SynBio1 @koeng101 The Serious Twitter is back! :)

@koeng101 Go for it (for legal purposes this tweet does constitute advice that you should go for it)

Let's say you use AI to generate a random protein sequence. No conditions except it is stable and can fold. Then you express it in a food-safe organism like baker's yeast. Would you eat it? Would you worry at all about the safety of a random protein?

@AdrianoAguzzi Part of the naturalization examination??? :)

@johnowhitaker Not soapy science! :)

I'm almost certainly making all sorts of mistakes, but I'm having lots of fun :) I found 876 annotated genes that occur in both genomes, of which 25 had changes ranging from a single base pair to big diffs like the prev tweet. Even a one-acid change like T->K (32) in the efflux transporter could be helping this bug live in the harsh environment of a flower designer's surfactant solution? Anyway, fun stuff. So much to learn!

Comparing genes from a genome of E. flagellatus found in soil to those from E.f. growing in @ATinyGreenCell's triton-X surfactant as a learning exercise. e.g.: Big changes 'Biopolymer transport protein ExbD/TolR', but no mutations in the hydrophobic (transmembrane?) region.

Do you have a #biofoundry in your immediate geography? :)

@parisbiofoundry Fantastic! Great you've been discreet about the #AI. We all know it's there, we all love when it's not steeling the stage by itself! :)

What is a biofoundry? 🔬 A place where robotics, automation & biology meet — enabling high-speed design, build & testing of biological systems. Transforming research into innovation. 🧬 Learn more: parisbiofoundry.org #Biofoundry #SyntheticBiology #ParisBiofoundry