Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats
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Anthropic's Claude discovered a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like DNA repeats in bacteriophages.
Anthropic formed a life sciences research group in spring 2026 to use AI for biological discovery. Claude agents searched over 200,000 reverse transcriptases, narrowed 3,500 candidates to 20, and found an unusual RT family with a tandem repeat array in jumbo phages. The system, called array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART), includes an RT, a partner gene, and evenly spaced DNA repeats resembling CRISPR. Feng Zhang called the finding intriguing. The lab is testing the system's function.
Claude worked autonomously for 21 hours using 950 agents and 210 million tokens. The system produces short RNAs from the repeat array, suggesting programmable functionality. The discovery was released as a preprint.
What commenters are saying
Commenters were impressed but skeptical. Some questioned whether the lack of functional results suggests a competing lab may have a similar finding. A camp argued this could be early evidence of recursive self-improvement, while others dismissed the comparison, noting LLMs cannot alter their own weights. One commenter raised concerns about data provenance, suggesting Anthropic may have used others' work without consent. Another noted that similar AI-driven discoveries have faced credibility issues after past controversies like the Alpöge and Buckmaster incident.