A study published Aug. 6, 2026, in the journal Science detailed how researchers at Stanford University and the Arc Institute built the first complete viral genomes generated fully through artificial intelligence. Those viruses, called bacteriophages, target bacteria and not humans, animals or plants. Brian Hie, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Stanford and an innovation investigator at the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, California, headed the project with Stanford bioengineering gr