The company's AI recently identified a unique genetic mechanism within the DNA of viruses that attack bacteria. This biological tool, which Anthropic calls ART, features repeating DNA sequences similar to CRISPR and may allow for the cutting, copying, and pasting of genetic material. Roughly 950 Claude agents spent 21 hours and consumed 210M tokens searching genome data to flag the sequence, which human scientists subsequently validated through lab experiments using E. coli bacteria.

The find is the first output from Anthropic’s molecular biology lab, established in Spring 2026 to accelerate the identification of drug targets and new therapeutic modalities. CEO Dario Amodei stated that collaborating with AI to drive the initial stage of biological discovery could eventually speed up the entire biomedical pipeline, expressing a goal to cure most diseases within 5 to 10 years. While the exact function of the ART system remains unclear, the company plans to expand this approach into genomics and other fields.