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Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats
Claude autonomously discovered a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats in bacteriophages.
Anthropic introduced a new life sciences research group and laboratory focused on fundamental biology research using Claude, and shared early results in which Claude autonomously discovered a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like properties.
The system, called array-associated reverse transcriptases (ARTs), was identified after Claude agents searched a DNA database for 21 hours using 210 million tokens, and the findings are detailed in a pre-print.
The lab operates at BSL-1 and BSL-2 biosafety levels and does not handle human-infecting pathogens.
From the source
After 21 hours spent searching this data by roughly 950 agents using 210 million tokens, one of the agents spotted something remarkable: a repeating pattern of DNA sequences that occurs next to the gene for an odd-looking RT. After further analysis and testing in our lab, we recognized that this pattern marked a previously uncharacterized enzyme system found in bacteriophages (the viruses that infect bacteria) that we call array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART).
anthropic.com
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