Anthropic researchers use Claude to determine the first 3D structure of a prokaryotic vault particle

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Anthropic’s biology research team determined the first 3D structure of a vault particle found in prokaryotes, specifically a bacteriophage vault named L05.
The L05 vault is composed of 96 copies of a single protein, forming a shell roughly 54 nanometers long and 45 nanometers wide, which encloses about 25% more volume than mammalian vaults despite being shorter.
Claude assisted in searching protein databases, designing DNA constructs, optimizing isolation methods, and processing cryo-EM data, enabling the team to solve the structure in 34 hours compared to the usual weeks.
The team engineered larger vault variants by duplicating wall segments, increasing enclosed volume by approximately 20%, and identified a pocket holding a small molecule resembling coenzyme A.
The research demonstrates that Claude can accelerate fundamental biology discovery, though the team noted that the model occasionally made errors requiring human correction, such as skipping standard processing steps.

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