310,000 designs in 64 hours, with only 5 human instructions
Anthropic on Oct. 20 published research in which an internal research version of Claude designed, nearly autonomously, proteins that bind to scorpion neurotoxins. @LuminaBench, an X account that follows AI evaluations, reported it the same day (same day Japan time). The company did not disclose the name of the model used.
The targets were five neurotoxins found in scorpions in Mexico, Brazil, North Africa and the Middle East. With only an initial instruction and four follow-up instructions, Claude worked for 64 hours and generated 318,484 designs using 12 protein design tools. It computationally examined more than 550,000 combinations with the toxins, using about 10,000 GPU hours. From those it selected 180 as candidates to send to experiments, and researchers added 31 more with Claude's help.
At least 1.2 million people are stung by scorpions worldwide each year, and more than 3,250 die.
17 of 211 met the criteria
Protein synthesis and measurement were handled by two outside companies, Adaptyv Bio and Twist Bioscience. The criteria were binding consistently in both laboratories, exceeding a set strength, and not binding to unrelated human proteins. Seventeen of the 211 met the criteria. The two strongest bound very tightly to "Cn2," a toxin from a Mexican scorpion.
Designs intended to bind multiple toxins with a single protein, meanwhile, all failed to meet the criteria for two or more toxins. Of the 60 designs aimed at a single toxin, 11 succeeded.
| Target toxin | Designs meeting the criteria |
|---|---|
| Cn2 | 7 |
| AaH I | 4 |
| AaH II | 4 |
| LqhIII | 2 |
Early-stage research, not an antivenom
The experiments used toxins produced in a laboratory, not venom collected from scorpions. Whether the proteins block the toxins' activity in cells, or protect animals, was not confirmed. Much more research is needed to confirm safety, stability and effectiveness as a drug. The result is a technical report, not a peer-reviewed paper.
Anthropic published all 211 designs, their predicted structures and the experimental results so that other researchers can verify the results and test their ability to block the toxins.
Companies are continuing to push AI into life science research. The same day, OpenAI announced the acquisition of U.S. drug development company Orchestra Bio, and Microsoft announced the release of "BioEmu2," an AI that reproduces molecular motion.
