Anthropic Uses Claude to Map Bacteriophage Vault Particle

Anthropic says Claude helped its biology team uncover the structure of a vault like particle made from a bacteriophage protein, as detailed in a company research post. Vaults are large protein shells whose biological function remains unknown.

The researchers used Claude Science to search about 15 billion predicted proteins, design DNA constructs and help test candidate vault proteins. Seven of 15 soluble proteins assembled into vault like particles, while cryo electron microscopy confirmed the shape for four. The team mapped one phage particle built from 96 copies of a protein called L05 and engineered a larger version with about 20 percent more internal volume.

Claude also helped develop an isolation process that reduced preparation time from about three days to 90 minutes. It processed microscopy data using open source software and produced an initial structural model in 34 hours. The project also encountered errors, including an unsuitable growth medium recommendation and a skipped microscopy processing step that produced a flawed map.

The results were released in a preprint. The team has produced the particles only in E. coli and has not confirmed that they form naturally in the bacteria or phages carrying the related genes. Their biological function also remains unknown.