Anthropic says Claude found a new enzyme system in bacteria-infecting viruses
Human lab work followed a 21-hour search by roughly 950 Claude agents; the system's function and possible uses remain unknown.
TLDR
Anthropic says roughly 950 Claude agents searched more than 200,000 reverse transcriptases and surfaced an unusual system in bacteriophages after 21 hours. The company’s scientists then analyzed and tested the candidate in a lab, naming it array-associated reverse transcriptases, or ART. Its reverse transcriptase sits beside an unknown partner gene and a repeating DNA array reminiscent of CRISPR. Early experiments found that the array produces short RNAs, but Anthropic has not established ART’s biological function or shown that it can be used for gene editing or medicine.
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