An account on X using the username @Prof_Oak_, named after Professor Samuel Oak, the famous Pokémon researcher from the television series, made an unexpected announcement on Tuesday night. The account’s owner revealed that he was behind a one-person biotech lab recently acquired by Anthropic.
“Surprise 1: Anthropic acquired a one-person biotech. Surprise 2: that person is me,” Professor Oak wrote on X, identifying himself as Cody Tranbarger.
Tranbarger said he had established Mithril Medicine around 18 months earlier to develop medical treatments. Unlike conventional research laboratories, Mithril employed just one human worker, with Anthropic’s Claude AI models handling much of the remaining work.
In a LinkedIn post, Tranbarger revealed that Anthropic had acquired his biotech startup in July this year. His profile lists him as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at venture capital firm Atlas Venture. He also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Claude helped one person run a biotech company
Mithril operated virtually, with Tranbarger as its only full-time employee, although the company also hired paid consultants. Claude helped coordinate experiments, manage data, handle contracts and organise logistics across external laboratories.
In a blog post about using AI to accelerate drug discovery, Anthropic confirmed the acquisition of Mithril Medicine and described its operating model as “Pipeline-in-a-Person.”
Tranbarger explained that the idea began as an experiment to see how much a single person could accomplish with Claude and part-time consultants.
The approach produced encouraging early results. Mithril reported proof-of-principle findings in mice for its LAMA2 programme in less than 18 months. Seven mice treated with one antibody format demonstrated approximately twice the grip strength and peak triceps force of four control mice.
Anthropic said Mithril had taken a potential treatment for a form of muscular dystrophy from an initial concept to promising results in mice in under 18 months.
However, the experiments had limitations. Treatment allocation was not randomised, tests were conducted at different times, and the mouse colony was moved between experiments. The technical report is also awaiting peer review.
More resources for medical research at Anthropic
Tranbarger said joining Anthropic would give him greater resources to continue his work and pursue additional research programmes. He described the opportunity as an “almost unprecedented luxury for a curious drug hunter.”
The account’s announcement ended with a playful reference to the famous Pokémon catchphrase: “gotta catch ‘em all.”
Anthropic said Tranbarger’s research into muscular dystrophy could eventually progress to human clinical trials. The company expects a drug candidate could be ready for such trials as early as late 2028, provided the results continue to hold up.
Anthropic has been exploring ways to accelerate drug discovery through artificial intelligence. Its reported progress includes Claude’s role in identifying a novel enzyme system resembling CRISPR-based gene-editing technology.
The acquisition of Mithril Medicine is part of Anthropic’s broader life-sciences initiative, which includes collaborations with BigHat Biosciences, Bristol Myers Squibb, Divergence Labs, Enveda, Generate Biomedicines and The Column Group. These partnerships focus on areas such as molecule design, lead optimisation, manufacturing documentation, regulatory submissions, company creation and clinical-trial planning.
