Alphabet, Google's parent company, has launched Isomorphic Labs—a cutting-edge pharmaceutical research lab powered by DeepMind's AI to accelerate drug discovery. What does this mean for the future of medicine?
DeepMind made headlines with AlphaGo Zero, the AI that defeated world-class Go champions and even developed its own strategies. In 2018, the company also trained AI to detect eye diseases, paving the way for tools that could support ophthalmologists.
As reported by CNBC on November 5, 2021, DeepMind is advancing further in healthcare. Alphabet's new venture, Isomorphic Labs, will partner closely with DeepMind to push boundaries in medicine.
Isomorphic Labs aims to lead in “digital biology”, "reimagining the whole drug discovery process" by leveraging AI to “model and understand some of the fundamental mechanisms of life”.
Founder Demis Hassabis describes biology as an information processing system, highlighting an isomorphism—the shared structure between computer science and biology—which inspired the lab's name. While specifics are limited, Isomorphic Labs won't develop drugs itself. Instead, it will create predictive models to forecast how potential drugs interact with the human body, licensing them to pharmaceutical companies.
“We believe that fundamental use of cutting-edge computational and AI methods can help scientists take their work to the next level and massively accelerate the drug discovery process,” Hassabis stated in a blog post.
Headquartered in the UK, the lab is actively recruiting experts in biology, AI, pharmaceutical chemistry, and biophysics. With a brand new AI system in development, tangible results may take several years.
