Anthropic's New Science App Could Speed Up Drug Discovery Near Boston

An AI company called Anthropic has launched a new app called Claude Science. The app is built to help scientists in drug research labs work faster and smarter. It was released this month, and it is already drawing attention from the busy life sciences community around Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anthropic hopes the tool will speed up the process of finding new medicines for diseases like cancer and dementia.

Finding a new drug usually takes more than ten years. Researchers have to run thousands of experiments, study huge amounts of data, and then go through a long government approval process. Anthropic's cofounder, Dario Amodei, believes AI can change all of that. He said at a launch event in San Francisco, 'I absolutely believe that we can make 10 years of progress every year.'

Amodei has a PhD in biophysics, which means he has studied the science of how living things work at a very detailed level. He says Claude Science was built specifically for scientists hunting for new drug candidates. With tools like this, he believes researchers could make ten times as much progress on medicines for cancers, dementia, and rare genetic diseases in the coming decade. Shortly after launching Claude Science, Anthropic also announced it plans to develop its own drugs someday.

Massachusetts has a lot riding on how AI changes the drug research world. The state is home to nearly one-sixth of all drug development happening in the United States. Last year, it attracted more than 20 percent of the country's investment money for new biotech companies. The area around Kendall Square in Cambridge and Boston's hospital research centers makes up the largest amount of lab space of any city in the country.

However, Massachusetts has hit some bumps recently. Private investment in the state has dropped, and government research funding has been cut. About 30 percent of the state's biomedical lab spaces are currently empty — more than rival science hubs like San Francisco and San Diego. Some large life sciences companies, like Takeda and Thermo Fisher, have laid off hundreds of workers in the state over the past year.

AI could help bring those empty labs back to life, but it also raises tough questions about jobs. A venture capitalist named Jeff Bussgang, who invests in Boston biotech startups, says companies are already using AI tools in many parts of their work. 'Biotechs are all over AI,' he says. 'They're incorporating it into their workflows, into every aspect of their business.' Two startups he has backed show how this is working in real life.

One startup, called Scitara, is based in Marlborough, Massachusetts. It uses machine learning — a type of AI — to help companies collect and connect data from lab equipment. Another startup, called Alchemi, was started by Harvard Business School graduates. It builds AI tools that quickly gather information from many sources to speed up the paperwork needed before a drug can be approved by the government.

Some experts think AI will create new kinds of jobs in the life sciences, even if it changes old ones. Workers who can both create and analyze data about drugs and test results may be in high demand. A group called MassBio runs a program called DRIVE that pairs new tech-and-biology companies with experienced biotech leaders to help workers learn AI skills. 'We want these tech-bio companies to know they have a home here in Massachusetts,' said Jason Cordeiro, MassBio's chief operating and innovation officer.

Still, there are open questions about whether AI's big promises are coming true. Travis McCready, a real estate expert who tracks the life sciences industry, says the technology is making research faster and more efficient. But he points out that no AI-designed drugs have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration yet. 'We're in the middle of a story that's being written,' he said.