Anthropic says Claude discovered a new enzyme system, but CRISPR researchers call it routine genome mining
Anthropic says Claude found a new enzyme system, but CRISPR experts call it routine genome mining.
Anthropic says Claude identified a previously unknown enzyme system, dubbed ART, while agents searched DNA databases. About 950 AI agents spent 21 hours reviewing more than 200,000 reverse transcriptases and found repeating DNA sequences beside an unusual enzyme, mostly in bacteriophages. Humans set the research question and ran the lab experiments; the system's function remains unknown. Lucas Harrington, a CRISPR researcher and Mammoth Biosciences co-founder, said similar genome mining has existed for decades and Anthropic has not shown what the system does.
- About 950 agents searched over 200,000 reverse transcriptases in 21 hours.
- The ART system appears mainly in bacteriophages and its function is unknown.
- Anthropic calls it an early result from its 2026 Bay Area biology lab.
- CRISPR researcher Lucas Harrington says the mining method is decades old.
- Organizations
- AnthropicMammoth Biosciences
- AI models
- Claude
From the original article
1 min read at the-decoder.com
Anthropic's AI model Claude found a previously unknown enzyme system in DNA databases, doing most of the analysis on its own. The article Anthropic says Claude discovered a new enzyme system, but CRISPR researchers call it routine genome mining appeared first on The Decoder.
By Manuel Uth · the-decoder.com
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