Anthropic quietly set up a San Francisco Bay Area wet lab for physical biology as it ramps preclinical AI drug work, with Claude directing lab robots under human oversight and no clinical trials for now, Reuters reported.
Anthropic has quietly built a Bay Area wet lab for physical biology experiments as it expands beyond computer-only (“in silico”) evaluations into drug science, Reuters reported in an exclusive from San Francisco. Two people familiar with the matter described the lab; Anthropic’s head of life sciences, Eric Kauderer-Abrams, confirmed it in a Reuters interview.
“We believe that to do biology, the final test is still and will be for a while in real lab work,” Kauderer-Abrams said. A spokesperson later clarified that the lab is not for drug discovery specifically, declining to elaborate. Anthropic wants Claude to direct robotic units that carry out science experiments with limited human intervention, one of the people said, while the company says human oversight remains essential for safety.
Kauderer-Abrams said Anthropic is in the “very early innings” of using AI to automate lab execution and is mixing in-house facility work with external partners. Life sciences is already one of the company’s biggest investment areas by headcount and resources, he said. In June the company staked out plans for preclinical drug programs in areas traditional pharma finds less attractive financially, launched Claude Science software, added Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board, and confirmed buying Coefficient Bio to help build drug-development tools (deal price reported elsewhere as about $400 million in stock; Anthropic had no comment on price).
Anthropic is not running clinical trials for now and says it is not competing with pharma and biotech firms whose business is bringing drugs to market, partly due to competition concerns from customers. Reuters noted the push lands as Anthropic balances life-sciences ambition against public AI-risk fears and its own recent safety messaging.
This brief covers the Reuters exclusive and on-the-record confirmation. It does not treat any specific disease program as clinically proven.