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Let me explain what just happened. Anthropic built a biology lab where Claude works alongside real scientists. They told Claude to search a massive DNA database for interesting reverse transcriptases (enzymes that copy RNA into DNA). Then they let it run: ~950 Claude agents worked in parallel for 21 hours across 200,000+ enzymes. One agent spotted a repeating DNA pattern next to an enzyme, the same kind of signature that originally led humans to discover CRISPR (the gene-editing tool that…
Anthropic@AnthropicAI5h ago
Claude has discovered a previously unknown enzyme system hidden in the DNA of bacteriophages. Beside the enzyme’s gene sits a long array of repeating DNA—a structure that looks somewhat similar to CRISPR. We don’t yet understand what this system does, but only a handful of known systems share its features, and all of them are able to cut, copy, and paste DNA. Historically, the discovery of such programmable systems has helped revolutionize medicine. CRISPR, for instance, is now the foundation of genetic medicines. But it will take much more work to learn what this system does, and whether it can be put to similar use. Read more: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-discovers-novel-enzyme-system