Over the last year, major AI developers have seen users asking their chatbots for help designing bioweapons. Now, a new wave of new biosecurity companies is using that exact same technology to build a defense system. WSJ reporter Georgia Wells joins us to tell us about Red Queen Bio and how its technology works. Isabelle Bousquette, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute, hosts.
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[00:00:00] Hey TNB listeners, before we begin, a quick update. We're on a new schedule. Starting today, we'll be bringing you a single in-depth interview about what's happening in tech every weekday morning. Now, on to the show. Welcome to Tech News Briefing. It's Thursday, October 1st. I'm Isabel Busquets, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute. Could AI help create the next pandemic?
[00:00:27] It may sound like sci-fi, but the risk is increasingly real. Over the past year, major AI developers like OpenAI and Anthropic have seen users asking their chatbots how to synthesize biological weapons, from bird flu to measles. The fear is that AI could drastically lower the barrier to engineering dangerous pathogens. But a new wave of biosecurity companies is using that exact same technology to build a defense system.
[00:00:57] Take Red Queen Bio. It's a startup backed by OpenAI, and it's using AI models to rapidly design antibody treatments capable of stopping emerging viruses in their tracks before a pandemic can take off. Joining me to break down how Red Queen Bio works, its sci-fi origins, and whether AI biodefense can outrun the attackers is WSJ reporter Georgia Wells.
[00:01:22] And a quick disclaimer. News Corp., owner of the Wall Street Journal, has a content licensing partnership with OpenAI. Georgia, how real is the risk that the AI systems we have today could be used to engineer a bioweapon or a new pandemic? I don't know if we really truly know, but the big AI developers say that the risks are increasing.
[00:01:45] And so last year, OpenAI observed hundreds of users asking their chatbot how to make and deploy poisons and biological weapons, including like aerosolized pathogens and modified measles. And then this month, Anthropics said that it had detected attempts to use its clawed chatbot to engineer a dangerous bird flu adapted for mammals with enhanced pandemic potential, as well as a lot of other scary questions. So people are definitely trying.
[00:02:11] And so I think that the perspective that the people I wrote about here took to it is if something happens, we need to be ready. It's a really scary scenario. If something like that does happen, how could a company like Red Queen Bio possibly help? So Red Queen Bio is essentially using AI to design remedies against AI-enabled bioweapons.
[00:02:34] And so right now they're rushing to design antibody drugs that can be manufactured to protect against a range of potential pathogens, including this like sci-fi threat of an AI-designed virus. So now Red Queen Bio is focusing on flus that public health officials have identified as top risks because of how like AI systems could lower barriers for modifying them.
[00:02:56] But the company plans to focus in coming months on antibodies for coronaviruses, Ebola-like viruses, bat-borne viruses, a bunch of others. Human clinical trials for their antibody drugs against bird flu and other viruses in the flu family are planned for next year. And they hope one day to add Red Queen Bio's antibodies to government stockpiles in the U.S. and Europe and to design and manufacture new antibodies fast enough to stop emerging threats. Let's break that down a bit more.
[00:03:23] How exactly is Red Queen Bio going to develop cures for diseases that don't exist yet? Currently, Red Queen Bio is developing antibodies for known risks. They view this task in part as a proof of concept that they're then hoping to apply to other pathogens. They're getting faster and faster.
[00:03:45] And their hope is to be able to do this so quickly in the future that if a new threat emerges, that they could then design a new antibody so quickly based on everything they've done so far. So tell us a little bit more about the company itself. How long has it been around and how much money has it raised?
[00:04:03] So the origin of Red Queen Bio really dates back to an early meeting in 2025 when the founders, Hanu Rayaniemi and Nikolai Arashenko, were seeing the emerging capabilities of AI's ability to do kind of biology. And there was this moment where they realized that one of the latest models was essentially able to recreate aspects of work that had taken them 18 months in the lab.
[00:04:30] And it occurred to them like AI could be used for good for, you know, curing a lot of scary things or it could also be used for bad. And so they wanted to design something to be able to protect for if the bad happens. In 2025, they raised $15 million from a group including OpenAI and other players. And then in 2026, OpenAI made a substantial follow on investment along with others. Red Queen Bio is not the only startup in the biosecurity space.
[00:04:59] What are some of the other companies we should be paying attention to here and what are they doing? There's an emerging industry of AI biosecurity startups. So Secure Bio monitors wastewater nasal swabs to deter biological attacks. Perimeter builds infrastructure to monitor biological signals for early warning of threats. And Valthos builds AI systems to detect, characterize and mitigate emerging biological threats. Do you think AI poses a real risk when it comes to bioweapons?
[00:05:28] If you're a listener on Spotify, let us know in the comments below. Coming up, can biosecurity companies like Red Queen Bio stay ahead of threats or do attackers hold the ultimate advantage? That's after the break. Welcome back to the show.
[00:05:55] Earlier we talked about how Red Queen Bio is using AI to build rapid defenses against emerging bio threats. I want to turn now to the executive director of Red Queen Bio, Hanu Ranyemi. What's motivating him to solve this problem? Hanu says his interest in the immune system dates back to 2012 when his mother's breast cancer recurred and metastasized. And at that time, he learned that the immune system constantly monitors for abnormal cells.
[00:06:21] And later he published a science fiction novel called Dark Home, where bioengineering has enabled biological attacks. And characters use genetic technology to develop remedies for cancer and other diseases. One thing that really came through when I was spending time with Hanu and Nikolai is both of them seem to really believe in the potential for AI to transform medicine in positive ways. But they have this belief that if something bad happens, that there could be a backlash to using AI in these sorts of ways.
[00:06:51] And so they really seem to earnestly believe in this mission of trying to protect against anything bad happening so that AI can be used for medical transformations. I thought it was so interesting that he went from writing a sci-fi fictional book about this to actually potentially dealing with this scenario in real life. But I think there was also a literary connection behind the name Red Queen Bio. Why did they name the company that?
[00:07:18] So the name Red Queen Bio is a nod to Lewis Carroll's book, Through the Looking Glass. And there's this character who in one scene tells Alice, you know, obviously the main character, that they need to keep running to stay in place. But additionally, in biology, the Red Queen hypothesis is the evolutionary theory that species must constantly adapt to keep up with ever-evolving competitors.
[00:07:41] This idea of using AI to defend ourselves against the risks posed by AI feels like something that's coming up again and again. You know, we see this in the cybersecurity space and now in bioweapons. Based on your reporting, is the advantage typically on the side of the attacker or the defender here? I spoke with Olivia Sharfman, who is a biotech fellow at the Institute for Progress. And her point was that the dynamics of biological warfare favor attackers over defenders.
[00:08:11] Because attackers have as long as they want to develop a weapon. But we don't have years to design a countermeasure. Yeah, that's a great point. Looking back at what happened during COVID, we saw how long that took. Right. It was nine months from, you know, declaring a pandemic to the vaccine. So there's obviously still a lot of fear and angst out there, as you reported, that AI could destroy civilization. Does the emergence of companies like Red Queen Bio mean that we can rest easy?
[00:08:41] You know, it's like really hard to know what the future is going to hold, right? But I think reporting about this story made me realize that there are people who really are trying to give humans their best shot here. That was journal reporter Georgia Wells. And that's it for Tech News Briefing. If you're a listener on Spotify, be sure to leave us a comment. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang, with supervising producer Katie Ferguson. I'm Isabel Busquette, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute.
[00:09:11] We'll be back tomorrow with a new episode. Thanks for listening. Bye. Bye.