Journalism of Courage
Anthropic says Claude AI helped discover novel enzyme system
Anthropic has named the system array-associated reverse transcriptases, or ART.
Pages from the Anthropic website and the company’s logos are displayed on a computer screen in New York. (File Photo)
Anthropic on Wednesday said its Claude model helped discover a novel enzyme system with properties reminiscent of mechanisms in gene-editing technology CRISPR, marking the first result from the AI startup’s biology research efforts.
The finding comes days after Reuters reported Anthropic had quietly established a wet lab in the San Francisco Bay Area, as the company expands its ambitions in life sciences and drug-related research beyond purely computer-based work.
Anthropic said Claude analyzed large DNA databases and found an unusual system built around a reverse transcriptase (RT), an enzyme that copies RNA into DNA.
Anthropic has named the system array-associated reverse transcriptases, or ART.
ART contains repeating DNA sequences that resemble patterns seen in CRISPR, Anthropic said.
The company noted that while the underlying RT had been identified in previous studies, Claude appeared to be the first to recognize key features of the broader system, including an array of non-coding DNA sequences and an additional protein of unknown function.
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