Anthropic says Claude agents found a possible new gene-editing system
Anthropic reports its Claude agents surfaced ART, a CRISPR-like enzyme system of unknown function; independent validation is the thing to watch.
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Anthropic announced on September 23 that its newly formed biology lab has produced its first result: Claude agents searching DNA databases identified an enzyme system not previously on record, which the company calls ART, or array-associated reverse transcriptases.
According to Anthropic's announcement, roughly 950 agents spent 21 hours and 210 million tokens combing the data before one spotted a repeating array of DNA sequences next to the gene for an odd-looking reverse transcriptase — a pattern reminiscent of CRISPR. Systems with this combination of features have so far all been programmable tools that cut, copy, and paste DNA, so ART may be a new kind of gene editor.
The system's function is still unknown, and the result is a first-party preprint. Feng Zhang, a CRISPR pioneer and MIT professor, said the finding merits further investigation. The lab's follow-up biochemical and structural tests will decide what ART is actually worth.