UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The One Health Microbiome Center (OHMC) at the Penn State Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences will welcome an internationally renowned artificial intelligence (AI) biologist to Penn State as part of their seminar series at 11 a.m. on Dec. 5 in Foster Auditorium at the Paterno Library. Attendance is open to the Penn State community and registration is required in advance.
César de la Fuente works at the interface of biology, engineering and computation. He leads the Machine Biology Group at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a Presidential Associate Professor. His team invented the first antibiotics designed by AI models to optimize efficacy and selectivity of new antibiotics. Whereas most antibiotics are identified from natural compounds that may be screened in a lab, de la Fuente’s group trains computer algorithms to scan for and create thousands of new antibiotics. After synthesizing a subset of the molecules in the lab, he investigates the effectiveness of these novel compounds against bacteria in an animal model. As a versatile AI biologist, de la Fuente uses machine learning methods to scour genetic data and identify novel antibiotics hidden within the biological blueprints of everything from Neanderthal remains and woolly mammoths to modern human genomes, venom and extreme-living microbes. In addition to his group’s work in computational design of antibiotics, he also developed antimicrobial materials and diagnostics for COVID-19 and other infections.
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was responsible for over a million global deaths in 2019 and has been named a top global public health threat by the World Health Organization (WHO). AMR occurs when microbes, especially those that cause infections and disease, are no longer susceptible to antimicrobial medicines. This can make infections difficult, if not impossible, to treat. The current pipeline to identify new and effective antimicrobial medicines and get them to market can take 10 to 15 years, according to the WHO. With AMR on the rise and new ways to treat infections scarce, turning to faster, novel methods such as AI-assisted antibiotic development will be crucial in solving this global threat, according to De la Fuente. His work aims to address AMR by combining bioengineering, computation and biology to better detect and treat infectious diseases.
De la Fuente received his doctorate from the University of British Columbia and completed postdoctoral research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Named one of the world’s top innovators in 2019 by MIT Technology Review, de la Fuente has now received over 50 awards, including the inaugural Langer Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence in 2019, the Princess of Girona Prize for Scientific Research in 2021, the Thermo Fisher Award in 2021, Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Academic Early Career Achievement Award in 2021, and the Microbiology Society Fleming Prize in 2025. He has been named a Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate, a 2018 STAT Wunderkind and a 2021 Young Innovator in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering from the Biomedical Engineering Society. His group’s discoveries have yielded over 180 publications in journals including Nature Communications, Cell, Science and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; and numerous patents, including rapid low-cost diagnostics for COVID-19 infection. De la Fuente was recently interviewed on National Public Radio’s Science Friday about his work using AI to identify potential antibiotics in ancient archaea, a domain of life that includes single-celled microorganisms that are distinct from bacteria.
The Dec. 5 lecture will be available both in-person and online, with registration required in advance. Preceding the seminar, de la Fuente will appear at the Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Day event, presented by the OHMC, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System, and sponsored by QIAGEN. This event will take place from 8 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on the third floor commons area of the Millennium Science Complex. RSVPs are requested, but not required.
Please reach out to Grace Deitzler (gdeitzler@psu.edu) with any questions regarding accessibility.
About the OHMC
As one of the largest and most active units in the field, the OHMC is on a global mission to define the future of health and build a legacy of contributions that promote the general welfare of humans, agriculture and the environment. Learn more on the OHMC website.