According to reports from Reuters and The Times of India, Anthropic has established a laboratory for physical biology work as it expands its artificial intelligence ambitions into drug science. The startup has built a wet lab for physical experiments in the San Francisco Bay Area, marking a significant shift from purely computational approaches. As reported by Reuters, Anthropic's head of life sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, confirmed the wet lab development, stating that "to do biology, the final test is still and will be for a while in real lab work." The company is now allowing Claude AI to control robots for scientific experiments, reducing manual labor requirements while maintaining human oversight for safety. According to The Times of India, Anthropic wants its Claude AI to direct robotic units conducting experiments with limited human intervention, though human involvement remains essential for safety. The company has also launched Claude Science software to enhance its biology research capabilities.
As reported by Reuters, Anthropic aims to unlock treatments for rare diseases through its biology work, which has moved beyond computer evaluations to physical experimentation. According to Reuters, the company's mission focuses on developing powerful AI in ways that benefit the world, with life sciences representing the biggest opportunity for this impact. CEO Dario Amodei has personal motivation for the effort, as a disease killed his father only a few years before a cure became available. The company believes AI could fast-track development for conditions previously considered 'undruggable' through complex molecule discovery. As reported by Reuters, Kauderer-Abrams noted that "there's some things that we can do much faster in our own hands," with the goal "to operate at the largest possible scale." The startup staked out its intention to start running drug programs at a San Francisco event in June, with Kauderer-Abrams stating they would do preclinical work in areas that traditional companies did not find attractive financially. According to The Times of India, the company's spokesperson said the lab was not specifically for drug discovery, though declined to elaborate further on their strategic focus.
According to Reuters and The Times of India, Anthropic is embracing physical automation in its laboratory operations, using its Claude AI to direct robotic units for science experiments with limited human intervention. As reported by Reuters, Kauderer-Abrams noted they are in the "very early innings" of using AI to automate lab work, which has the potential to bring meaningful acceleration across different processes. The company launched the Model Hardware Standard in August 2026 to help AI operate equipment and provides AI services to major pharmaceutical companies including Roche's Genentech, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Novo Nordisk. According to The Times of India, Anthropic wants its Claude AI to direct robotic units conducting experiments with limited human intervention, though human oversight remains essential for safety. The company is also looking to hire a leader who could ramp up procurement and other operations, while seeking experts in "protein and nucleic acid characterization" and other biochemical work. As reported by Reuters, the company aims to explore the use of AI to automate lab work, though human oversight and involvement remain crucial for ensuring experimental safety.
According to Reuters, Anthropic has confirmed the acquisition of biotech startup Coefficient Bio for approximately $400 million in stock, though the company had no comment on the deal price. The company has also onboarded Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board of directors, signaling significant pharmaceutical industry engagement. Anthropic has launched Claude for Life Sciences, enabling Claude to connect to scientific research platforms including Benchling, PubMed, BioRender, and 10x Genomics. The company is providing AI tools and services to pharmaceutical companies including Genentech, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Novo Nordisk. As reported by Reuters, Kauderer-Abrams said that Anthropic, due partly to competition concerns, has set a boundary that it is not running clinical trials for now and is focusing on needs that industry would not address. "We're not competing with pharma and biotech companies that make their business in bringing drugs to market," he said. The company is building hands-on experience while retaining outside capacity, with Kauderer-Abrams noting "we're always balancing these things, making models better in ways that we think will uplift and accelerate developing medicines, and being thoughtful and careful about how we deploy it to limit the risk."
