Anthropic: Claude designs protein binders against scorpion toxins, 17 of 211 validated in lab
Anthropic reports an internal research model working with Citrini Research designed 318k protein binders against scorpion neurotoxins; 17 of 211 lab-tested designs by Adaptyv Bio and Twist Bioscience bound four dangerous toxins. Anthropic says this shows AI could let motivated nonexperts tackle health problems like neglected antivenom design. The 211 designs and data are released publicly. Anthropic says binders are unconfirmed as neutralizing and no antivenom is claimed. Safety-relevant detail: the campaign ran largely autonomously over 64 hours, and the collaborators were from a financial research firm, not a bio lab.
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- New on our Science Blog: designing protein binders against scorpion neurotoxins. Scorpions sting about 1.2m people every year, and antivenoms are often costly or in short supply. Claude has made an early step toward finding new treatments. anthropic.com/research/claud…441 likes · 72 reposts
- 17 of the 211 met the criteria for a binder. They bound to dangerous toxins produced by scorpions from Mexico, North Africa, and the Middle East (but not by a species from Brazil).
52 likes · 3 reposts - Working with @citrini, we asked Claude to design proteins that bind to five scorpion toxins (covering the part of the toxin that latches onto cells). Over the next 64 hours, Claude generated over 300,000 designs; we sent 211 to @adaptyvbio and @TwistBioscience for lab testing.70 likes · 5 reposts
- Anthropic gave Citrini access to an unreleased internal bio-research model. Using a 35-page prompt, Claude generated 300 sub-agents and autonomously ran a design campaign, generating 318k candidates and selecting 211 for testing. 17 designs bound across four toxins.
24 likes · 0 reposts - We’re releasing all 211 of the tested designs and the lab data as a resource for scientists: huggingface.co/datasets/Anthr… Read the full technical report: www-cdn.anthropic.com/31ac578806cffd…31 likes · 0 reposts
- This is exploratory work, and we’re not claiming to have produced an antivenom—for that, we’d have to test the binders within living cells, then in mice, among many other steps. But it’s an example of how Claude can concretely assist research in protein design.30 likes · 0 reposts
- Technical report: www-cdn.anthropic.com/31ac578806cffd…1 likes · 0 reposts
- Well, every company is now if you have access to the Dr Claude model.4 likes · 0 reposts
- 2 likes · 1 reposts
- Official post from Anthropic:
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