Anthropic: Claude يساعد فريق الأحياء يحدد أول بنية ثلاثية الأبعاد لـ«vault» في خلايا بدائية النواةAnthropic: Claude helps biologists map the first 3D vault structure found in prokaryotic cells

Anthropic says its biology research team, with Claude under their direction, determined the first 3D structure of a vault particle found in prokaryotic cells, according to a company post on 4 November. Vaults are large hollow protein shells discovered in 1986; their function in cells is still unsettled.

The structure they mapped comes from a bacteriophage protein called L05 and is built from 96 copies of the protein (48 per half), versus 78 in human vaults. It is about 54 nanometres long and 45 wide, and though shorter than the mammalian version it encloses roughly 25% more volume because it is more spherical.

Under the team's direction, Claude searched protein databases, designed DNA constructs and helped speed isolation: a purification that usually takes about three days took roughly 90 minutes, and a first structural model was ready in 34 hours instead of an estimated weeks. They used cryo-electron microscopy to build the 3D model.

Anthropic states plainly that they have not determined vault function, and that the work deepens the mystery rather than settling it. They released findings early in a preprint and plan to share structures and data later. The story is a structural discovery aided by Claude, not a ready medical product or treatment.