For nearly four billion years, life on Earth evolved blindly. Natural selection tinkered, mutations accumulated, and organisms changed without foresight or design. Evolution, as scientists often say, had no plan.
Adrian Woolfson believes that era is ending. The physician-turned-scientist and co-founder of Genyro, a California-based biotechnology company specialising in synthetic genome design and construction, argues that humanity has entered a new phase known as generative biology: one in which life itself can be engineered deliberately. With artificial intelligence now capable of designing DNA sequences and new tools able to chemically build entire genomes, biology is becoming programmable.
In his book The Future of Our Species (Bloomsbury), Woolfson calls this a civilisational turning point — perhaps the most consequential technological shift in human history. In conversation, he explains why AI-generated genomes are already a reality, how his team’s technology is accelerating DNA synthesis, and why ethics must evolve just as quickly as science.
What compelled you to write this book now?
This is a pivotal moment, not just in human history, but in the history of life on Earth. It felt like the first time anyone needed to explain clearly what this new power means. That’s why I wrote the book. I felt driven to write it, almost like a calling.
Since childhood I’ve been preoccupied with questions like: What is life? What does it mean to be human? Where is humanity heading? I trained as a doctor and became a scientist, but that philosophical curiosity never left me. And during my lifetime we’ve witnessed the discovery of the DNA double helix, the rise of molecular biology, gene editing, and now generative biology driven by AI. Suddenly, we can contemplate designing life itself.
You say we can now “author life.” What does that mean scientifically?
For billions of years, evolution worked through random variation. Nature couldn’t predict outcomes. Now we can use AI to design genomes from first principles and physically build them. Biology becomes a predictive engineering material, programmable like computer code.
Instead of editing existing organisms - which is equivalent to marking a document - we can now write entirely new genetic sequences. If nature never evolved corn or rice, those crops simply wouldn’t exist. But there are countless useful biological possibilities that nature never explored. Now we are learning to design them ourselves.
How far along are we really? Is this still theoretical?
It’s very real. We can already synthesise viruses and bacteria from chemicals. Soon we’ll be able to build yeast. We can’t yet make complex animals, but the trajectory is clear. It’s like the Wright brothers, we’ve lifted off the ground. We’re not flying jets yet, but we know flight is possible.
At Genyro we developed a DNA-writing platform called Sidewinder, recently published in Nature, that dramatically reduces the cost and time required to build long DNA sequences. Meanwhile, researchers at Stanford are using AI to decode the ‘language’ of DNA, so this isn’t speculative science fiction. It’s happening now.
How could this technology impact everyday life?
This technology holds immense potential: designing drought- and heat-resistant crops, storing data in DNA, creating bio-computers, and producing sustainable bioenergy. Instead of polluting industrial processes, we could manufacture materials biologically.
Living systems are self-repairing and sustainable. Biology has been optimising itself for four billion years. If we harness it properly, it could become part of our infrastructure.
But designing life sounds risky. What about misuse?
Every powerful technology carries risk. Fire keeps you warm, but it can burn down a city. Biology is neutral. What matters is how humans use it. Right now, regulation hasn’t caught up. Scientists have shown they could build viruses from mail-order DNA components with little oversight. That’s concerning. The aim of the book is to draw attention to this rapidly advancing technology and offer readers a user-friendly guide to understanding and navigating an otherwise complex scientific landscape.
Gene editing sets a very high bar. Fixing single-gene diseases, like sickle cell, is possible and ethical. Changing many genes at once is unpredictable and risky. Creating new species must have strict safeguards—physical barriers alone aren’t enough; genetic firewalls are needed to prevent mixing with natural species. Risk will always exist, but with careful rules, the benefits can outweigh the dangers.
What were the changes you personally experienced while writing this book?
I wrote the book over five months in San Francisco. At first, I thought reviving extinct species should never happen. But by the end, I realised it’s never black and white. Nature is full of diversity, yet humans are just one species. Maybe one day there’s a case for restoration. Biology has become a space of limitless potential, and how we use it will define our future.
Will there be a point when the lines of a human being and an artificially created organism blur?
Humans, as a species, have certain inviolable tenets, one of the most fundamental being free will. It is this capacity to choose, to act independently, that defines our humanity. Equally remarkable is our imagination—a uniquely human gift.
AI may help design genomes, but humans must decide how that power is used. Because in the end, science can write the code but society chooses the story.
This story is written by S Keerthivas