Anthropic announced that its in-house wet biology lab, using its Claude AI model, identified a previously unknown enzyme system found in bacteriophage DNA that can cut, copy and paste DNA similarly to CRISPR. CEO Dario Amodei said the work took Claude about 21 hours using roughly 950 agents and 210 million tokens, and credited the discovery mostly, though not entirely, to the AI, while noting it builds on prior research including a similar Stanford finding.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-23
Anthropic announced a new life sciences research group that uses its Claude AI model to analyze DNA datasets, identify uncharacterized protein families, and generate testable hypotheses. The company reported an early result in which Claude, given only high-level guidance from scientists, identified a previously unknown enzyme system with features resembling CRISPR, which was then validated through lab experiments.
anthropic.com
· 2026-09-23
Anthropic reported that its Claude AI agents autonomously identified a previously uncharacterized enzyme system in bacteriophages after scanning a large DNA sequence database. The company said nearly 950 Claude agents ran for 21 hours, processing 210 million tokens, before flagging an unusual repeating pattern that human researchers then confirmed through lab testing. Anthropic likened the finding's underlying mechanism to that behind Crispr, though it says the enzyme's function is still being studied.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-23
Emma Waters, 28, joined the Heritage Foundation in 2022 as an analyst covering reproductive and fertility technology, writing policy briefs and op-eds and advising lawmakers on issues like embryo screening, IVF and surrogacy. In 2023 she appeared on Fox News warning that Chinese-linked surrogacy arrangements using American surrogates posed a national security risk, well before mainstream outlets covered the topic.
wired.com
· 2026-09-23
Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital used CRISPR-Cas9 screening in mouse T cell models to identify ZMYND8 as a regulator of T cell exhaustion. Removing ZMYND8 boosted IL-2 signalling in antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, including those engineered with CAR constructs, helping the cells retain function against tumours in mouse models.
nature.com
· 2026-09-23
Researchers using engineered HCT116 cell lines with degradable cohesin components (RAD21, WAPL, CTCF) and SMARCAL1 showed that cohesin actively reorganizes chromatin contacts around replication forks. This reshaping helps slow down forks and promotes their reversal when replication stress occurs, linking genome organization machinery directly to DNA replication control.
nature.com
· 2026-09-16
The European Union has overturned its previous strict restrictions on cultivating gene-edited crops, no longer classifying them under the same rules as traditional GMOs. The change allows CRISPR-edited plants, which involve only small DNA changes rather than foreign-species insertions, to be grown more freely, potentially alongside conventional crops. A plant geneticist argues this shift could reshape European agriculture, though he warns the new rules still contain flaws that may limit their benefits.
nature.com
· 2026-09-15
A woman who received a gene-edited pig kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital last November has now gone 285 days without needing dialysis, breaking the previous 271-day record set by Tim Andrews. The kidney was engineered by eGenesis using Crispr gene editing to remove pig genes that trigger immune rejection and add human genes, and she is the fifth patient to receive one of the company's kidneys.
wired.com
· 2026-09-03
A gene-editing therapy designed to permanently lower cholesterol has shown sustained reductions in patients for at least 12 months after a single treatment. The therapy uses CRISPR technology to edit genes tied to cholesterol regulation, aiming for a one-time fix rather than daily medication.
nature.com
· 2026-09-01
Scientists at Southern Illinois University Carbondale used CRISPR-edited yeast strains to break down PET plastic and plant waste into edible proteins, fats, and flavor compounds, which were then 3D printed into small cookie-shaped snacks called 'ÂBites.' The plastic is first broken down using heat, water, and oxygen before the yeast converts it into a food-like slurry, though the team has not yet tasted the cookies pending university approval.
science.slashdot.org
· 2026-08-30
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