Artificial Intelligence
Anthropic says Claude finds enzyme system in DNA databases
Anthropic said Claude identified a previously unknown enzyme system in DNA databases after a search run by about 950 AI agents, while a CRISPR researcher said the result was routine genome mining.
- Anthropic said Claude found a previously unknown enzyme system in DNA databases.
- The company said about 950 AI agents worked for 21 hours on more than 200,000 reverse transcriptases.
- Humans set the research question and carried out the laboratory experiments.
- The system was named ART, turned up mainly in bacteriophages, and its function was still unknown.
- Lucas Harrington said on X that genome mining had existed for decades and that similar systems had been known since 2008.
Anthropic said Claude identified a previously unknown enzyme system in DNA databases, and it described the result as one of the early outcomes from its biology lab in the Bay Area, which opened in spring 2026.
The company said about 950 AI agents spent 21 hours working through more than 200,000 reverse transcriptases. Near one unusual enzyme, they found repeating DNA sequences and called the system ART.
Anthropic said ART appeared mainly in bacteriophages. It also said the system’s function had not yet been established, while humans defined the question and handled the lab work.
Lucas Harrington, who earned his PhD under Jennifer Doudna and co-founded Mammoth Biosciences with her, wrote on X that genome mining had been used for decades. He said similar systems had been known since 2008 and that Anthropic had not shown what ART did.
Named in this story
People
- Lucas Harrington
- the researcher who criticised Anthropic’s claim
- Jennifer Doudna
- the Nobel laureate under whom Harrington earned his PhD
Companies
- Anthropic
- said Claude found the enzyme system and runs the biology lab
- Mammoth Biosciences
- the company Harrington co-founded and said used genome mining
Products and systems
- Claude
- the AI model used to search DNA databases
- ART
- the enzyme system Anthropic dubbed
- CRISPR-Cas9
- the gene-editing system Doudna co-discovered and the comparison point in the story
Places
- Bay Area
- the location of Anthropic’s biology lab
How the source tells it
The piece stayed mostly neutral, with mild novelty framing around Anthropic’s claim and a sceptical counterpoint from Lucas Harrington.
- novelty repeated emphasis on a previously unknown system, a new lab, and a large-scale AI search
- scepticism a quoted researcher undercutting the claim as routine and unproven