Anthropic said its Claude AI model helped identify a previously unrecognised enzyme system with features resembling mechanisms involved in CRISPR gene-editing technology, Reuters reported.

The AI startup has named the system array-associated reverse transcriptases (ART). According to Anthropic, Claude analysed large databases of DNA sequences and identified an unusual system built around reverse transcriptase, an enzyme that copies RNA into DNA.

Anthropic said the reverse transcriptase itself had been identified in earlier research, but Claude was able to recognise features of the broader system that had not previously been linked together.

These features included an array of non-coding DNA sequences resembling patterns found in CRISPR systems, along with an additional protein whose function remains unknown, Reuters reported.

The finding marks the first reported result from Anthropic’s biology research efforts. It comes shortly after Reuters reported that the company had established a wet laboratory in the San Francisco Bay Area as it expands its work in life sciences and drug-related research.

Anthropic said the discovery demonstrates how AI could help researchers identify previously overlooked biological systems from large genomic datasets.