Anthropic's Claude-driven biology lab reports first result: a CRISPR-like enzyme system

Anthropic built a San Francisco-area biology lab where Claude designs drug-discovery experiments, and the company now says a Claude-led search found a CRISPR-like enzyme system in bacteriophage DNA in about 21 hours.

Anthropic is building a San Francisco-area biology laboratory so Claude can direct physical drug-discovery experiments rather than simulations alone, releasing the Claude Science researcher workspace and a Model Hardware Standard for controlling lab equipment. Alongside the effort, it acquired Coefficient Bio for about $400 million in April and added Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board; it says human oversight remains required, it will not run its own clinical trials, and it highlights multi-target antibody design for diseases considered undruggable. Days after the lab's announcement, CEO Dario Amodei said a Claude-led search identified a previously unknown enzyme system in bacteriophage DNA with properties reminiscent of CRISPR, including cutting, copying, and pasting DNA — a search that took about 21 hours, roughly 950 agents, and 210 million tokens — while noting a Stanford team had previously found a partly similar system. Reports differ in emphasis on lab automation: the initial announcement said Claude would direct robots, but Amodei said physical experiments were performed by human scientists at BSL-1 and BSL-2, that the lab does not handle human pathogens, and that Claude is not autonomously running experiments today.

• Anthropic is building a San Francisco-area biology lab so Claude can direct physical drug-discovery experiments rather than simulations alone.
• Anthropic released Claude Science, a researcher workspace, and a Model Hardware Standard for controlling lab equipment.
• Anthropic acquired Coefficient Bio for about $400 million in April and added Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board.
• Anthropic says human oversight remains required, it will not run its own clinical trials, and it highlights multi-target antibody design for diseases considered undruggable.
• CEO Dario Amodei said a Claude-led search identified a previously unknown enzyme system in bacteriophage DNA with CRISPR-like properties, including cutting, copying, and pasting DNA.
• The search took about 21 hours, roughly 950 agents, and 210 million tokens, per Amodei.
• Amodei noted a Stanford team previously found a partly similar system.
• Physical experiments were performed by human scientists at BSL-1 and BSL-2; the lab does not handle human pathogens.