ChainThink reports that on August 19, Anthropic had Claude independently complete a protein design experiment.
Claude Opus 4.8 and Mythos Preview designed small proteins capable of binding to 15 target proteins, successfully achieving binding for 14 of them.
In the experiment, researchers integrated protein design and structure prediction tools with Claude, allowing it to independently research, select design sites, invoke tools, and continuously screen and refine proposals, with no human involvement in the specific design decisions.
Adaptyv Bio and Twist Bioscience then produced and tested the proteins designed by Claude in the lab. Of the final 1,320 designs, 354 were successful, yielding a success rate of approximately 27%.
Anthropic states that such protein design typically has a success rate of about 10% to 15%. Anthropic also notes that designing proteins capable of binding to a target is still only an early stage in drug development, requiring extensive further experimentation and clinical validation.