Anthropic has set up a wet lab in the San Francisco Bay Area as it expands its biology work beyond computer-based research, Reuters reported Friday.
Eric Kauderer-Abrams, Anthropic’s head of life sciences, confirmed the lab in a Reuters interview earlier this week. He said the company is already conducting physical biology experiments both internally and with external partners.
"We believe that to do biology, the final test is still and will be for a while in real lab work," he said. "We absolutely are doing that today."
A spokesperson later told Reuters the lab is not for drug discovery specifically, but they declined to elaborate. On its part, Anthropic has previously said it plans to pursue preclinical work in areas that traditional drugmakers have found less attractive financially.
Kauderer-Abrams said life sciences is already one of the company's largest investment areas by headcount and resources. In addition to Claude Science, Anthropic added Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board and acquired biology startup Coefficient Bio, which it confirmed would help build drug-development tools.
The company is interested in conditions considered “undruggable” and in complex molecules, according to Kauderer-Abrams. Anthropic is not pursuing clinical trials for now, he said, citing competition concerns.
Meanwhile, the lab comes weeks after Anthropic researchers warned AI could lead to human extinction. The company also said it found examples where its systems could have been used toward biological weapons development.
CEO Dario Amodei is on record calling for a slowdown in frontier AI development, even as Anthropic prepares for a potential $2 trillion IPO. The company has also published a transparency framework tracking AI-led R&D and agent oversight.