Anthropic reported the results on November 4, 2026, showing that prokaryotic and bacteriophage relatives of the major vault protein can assemble into vault particles when produced in E. coli. Claude helped the team map one bacteriophage-derived shell at a nominal resolution of 3.2 angstroms. Vaults are large, hollow protein shells whose biological function remains unknown. Producing related particles in bacteria gives researchers a faster-growing system for investigating their assembly…