Claude discovers unknown enzyme system in phage DNA with CRISPR-like repeats

AnthropicAI · x · 2026-09-24

Anthropic announced that Claude has discovered a previously unknown enzyme system hidden in bacteriophage DNA. Next to the enzyme's gene sits a long array of repeating DNA, a structure resembling CRISPR. Its function is still unknown, but the handful of known systems sharing its features can all cut, copy, and paste DNA — the kind of programmable system that historically revolutionized medicine, as CRISPR did for genetic medicines. Whether this one can be put to similar use will take much more research.

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