"Reviving Neanderthal Antibiotics: AI Scientists Make Groundbreaking Progress"

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania's Machine Biology Group have used AI to resurrect molecules with antibiotic properties found in extinct organisms, specifically Neanderthals and Denisovans. By training an AI model to predict effective antibiotics for modern humans, the researchers identified strong candidates and successfully created those molecules in the lab. Testing on infected mice showed that some of the molecules effectively fought off bacterial infections. This breakthrough in "molecular de-extinction" opens up new possibilities for drug discovery and could help address the urgent need for new antibiotics in the face of increasing antibiotic resistance. However, the ethical and legal implications of resurrecting molecules that no longer exist in living organisms remain uncertain.