Happy Independence Day! Since we’re celebrating the semiquincentennial of this country’s birth, I’ll keep it short this week.
This was a big week for science. Anthropic announced its foray into scientific work and the National Institutes of Health released a massive, public health dataset.
Anthropic debuted Claude Science, an AI workbench that uses specialized agents to query and analyze data from over 60 scientific databases. Anthropic says its Claude Science platform can help scientists conduct research and refine manuscripts. As part of this announcement, the company said it was launching an internal effort to discover new drugs for neglected diseases.
Is its foray into drug discovery a genuine business gambit or more of a sales pitch to pharmaceutical companies? Drugmakers are already embracing AI, but like many other industries are struggling with the increasing cost of the technology.
Also this week, the National Institutes of Health released the largest set of genomes paired to health record data in the world. It includes data from 747,000 participants. The comprehensiveness of this dataset is what makes it unique. Researchers are excited for what this data can tell us about how our genes dictate individual responses to environmental toxins and disease.
The last year and half have been tough for the scientific community. Some 7,800 grants were cut or paused in 2025, according to a Nature analysis. And Max Stier, CEO of the non-profit Partnership for Public Service, says that last year’s reduction in force created “a generational loss” in scientific talent at the federal government.
These announcements don’t reverse these problems. But they mark interesting new opportunities for scientific researchers who have the opportunity to do the work.
Now onto the news…
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Episode 1 of Rounds is here!
Co-hosted by Christina Farr and Stephanie Davis, this episode dives into women’s health care. Megan Scheffel from Silicon Valley Bank joins to break down the latest SVB women’s health report, and Joanna Strober, Founder of Midi Health, sits down to talk about building a billion-dollar company out of a gap the healthcare system spent decades ignoring.
