Anthropic uses Claude to generate the first 3D structure of a bacterial vault particle.

An Anthropic biology research team shares the process of collaborating with Claude to determine the first 3D structure of a vault particle from bacteria. The vault particle is a large, barrel-shaped protein structure discovered in 1986; its function remains unknown and it was previously only observed in complex life forms such as animals and plants. The team has demonstrated that similar proteins within bacteria and viruses can also assemble into vault structures. Claude significantly accelerated certain stages: while manual determination typically takes weeks or months, this project was completed in just a few days. However, some simple errors occurred, which the team corrected through collaboration with machine learning researchers.