tl;dr: Anthropic has launched a life sciences research lab where Claude agents autonomously mine DNA databases to identify novel protein families. In one early result, ~950 Claude agents spent 21 hours combing 200,000+ reverse transcriptases and flagged a new enzyme system in bacteriophages—dubbed ART (array-associated reverse transcriptases)—featuring a CRISPR-like repeat array next to an RT gene and an accessory protein. The system's function is still unknown and under lab investigation, but its structural similarities to programmable systems like CRISPR make it a promising discovery, endorsed by CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang.