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Claude designed protein binders against scorpion neurotoxins
research
12 min read
Anthropic used an internal Claude research model to design small protein binders for five scorpion-venom neurotoxins, with the long-term goal of supporting antivenom development. Over 64 hours and four follow-up prompts, Claude generated 318,484 candidate proteins, screened 553,052 protein-toxin pairs, and selected 180 designs for laboratory testing. Anthropic added 31 more designs with Claude’s help, and Adaptyv Bio and Twist Bioscience tested all 211 candidates. Seventeen designs met Anthropic’s binding criteria, which required consistent results from both laboratories, dissociation constants of 1 µM or tighter, and no detectable binding to an unrelated human protein. The binders each targeted a single toxin: seven bound Cn2, four bound AaH II, four bound AaH I, and two bound LqhIII. No designs intended to bind multiple toxins met the criteria for more than one target. The strongest Cn2 binders, Cn2-B1 and Cn2-B2, showed single-digit nanomolar affinity and competed with an antibody reported to neutralize Cn2 in mice. The results establish binding to recombinant toxins, not venom neutralization. Anthropic has not tested the designs in cells or animals and does not claim to have produced an antivenom. It released all 211 designs and their experimental data for further research.