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# Claude finds a new enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats in phage DNA
- URL: https://globalfeed.ai/en/claude-finds-a-new-enzyme-system-with-crispr-like-repeats-in-phage-dna/
- Published: 2026-09-23T18:52:34.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-23T18:52:34.000Z
- Description: In Anthropic's new biology lab, Claude agents searched a huge DNA database and found an enzyme system no one had noticed before. Its function is still unknown, but every known system with similar features can cut and copy DNA.
- Author: GlobalFeed Editor
- Tags: Claude, Anthropic, biology, scientific discovery, x-AnthropicAI, dil-en, elle

Anthropic has announced a new research group and laboratory doing fundamental biology research with AI. In one of its first results, **Claude** found a previously uncharacterised enzyme system in the DNA of bacteriophages, the viruses that infect bacteria. Anthropic calls it **ART**, for array-associated reverse transcriptases.

## What was found

ART has three parts: an enzyme that copies RNA into DNA (a reverse transcriptase), a partner gene of unknown function right beside it, and a long array of evenly spaced repeating DNA sequences. The repeat layout resembles the arrays in CRISPR, the gene-editing tool. According to Anthropic's first experiments, the array is expressed as a set of distinct short RNAs, as in CRISPR.

The enzyme itself had been identified in earlier studies. According to Anthropic, Claude was the first to notice the repeat array and the accessory protein next to it.

## Why it matters

Only a handful of known systems share this combination of features. All of them are programmable and can cut, copy or paste DNA. Many of biology's big tools started this way: CRISPR was first noticed as an unusual repeat sequence in bacterial DNA and now underpins gene-editing medicines.

## How Claude found it

Scientists asked Claude to search a massive DNA database for interesting new reverse transcriptases. According to Anthropic, the researchers' involvement was limited to that first prompt and the lab work. About 950 Claude agents searched the data for 21 hours. They gathered more than 200,000 enzymes, picked out 3,500 candidate systems and wrote readable reports on the 20 most compelling ones. Anthropic says this kind of analysis can take an expert scientist weeks to months.

One agent spotted the repeat array while reading the raw DNA next to an enzyme. It then counted the repeats, measured their spacing, compared the layout with known systems and searched the literature for earlier reports, before filing its report for human review. All lab experiments are done by human scientists.

After reviewing Anthropic's pre-print, Feng Zhang of MIT and the Broad Institute, one of the pioneers of CRISPR genome editing, called the work an exciting example of how AI agents can contribute to biological discovery. He said the RNA-repeat arrays linked to reverse transcriptases are genuinely intriguing and merit further investigation.

What ART actually does is not yet known, and Anthropic says experiments to understand its function are under way. While the details are still unclear, it is worth remembering that the results have so far been shared in a pre-print and have not yet appeared in a peer-reviewed journal, and that the lab only carries out low-risk work (BSL-1 and BSL-2). To see where the discovery leads, it is worth following evaluations from independent researchers.

Sources: [Anthropic: Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats](https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-discovers-novel-enzyme-system?ref=globalfeed.ai), [Anthropic technical report (pre-print)](https://www-cdn.anthropic.com/22573675ada52a8ca8a97a1a4b4326b2f208a071.pdf?ref=globalfeed.ai).