AI-Designed Drugs by a DeepMind Spinoff Are Headed to Human Trials
AlphaFold's Nobel-winning AI now targets real patients in clinical tests.
Isomorphic Labs, a UK-based biotech spinoff of Google DeepMind, announced at WIRED Health that its AI-designed drugs are headed to human clinical trials. President Max Jaderberg confirmed the milestone, though the timeline is later than the end-of-2025 target previously set by CEO Demis Hassabis. The company uses DeepMind's AlphaFold, an AI platform that predicts protein structures with unprecedented accuracy, a breakthrough that earned Hassabis and John Jumper the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
AlphaFold has predicted structures for virtually all 200 million known proteins and is used by over 2 million people globally. Isomorphic's new IsoDDE engine more than doubles AlphaFold 3's accuracy, enabling design of potent, low-dose drugs with fewer side effects. The company has partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis, raised $600 million in funding, and is building a clinical team to advance its oncology and immunology pipeline. Its ambitious mission: 'solve all disease.'
- Isomorphic Labs is starting human trials for AI-designed drugs using AlphaFold, which won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
- Its proprietary IsoDDE engine more than doubles AlphaFold 3's accuracy in drug design.
- The company has $600M in funding and partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis for AI-driven drug discovery.
Why It Matters
AI-designed drugs could slash development time and costs, making personalized treatments more accessible.