Over the past 12 months, Google’s efforts to accelerate drug design using artificial intelligence have achieved a breakthrough in mimicking human biology, with its top scientist receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Now, within the software giant, Isomorphic Labs is taking another major step towards raising money from outside investors, with the aim of developing and commercializing technology.
Isomorphic is set to announce on Monday that it has raised $600 million, led by Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm that has placed a big bet on AI companies, including OpenAI. GV’s Venture Capital Arm and Google’s parent company Alphabet have also invested.
The announcement highlights Google’s ambitions for Isomorphic. This was spun from the company’s DeepMind Lab to focus on drug discovery. It is based on software developed by DeepMind, a central intelligence lab in London. This includes Alphafold, which can predict structures such as millions of proteins.
In its third iteration, Alphafold, which can predict complex behaviors of DNA and RNA, promises to reduce development time for new drugs. That’s how I shared with Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Isomorphic and DeepMind, John M. Jumper, who last year shared half of the Nobel in Chemistry.
Hassabis said the goal is to carry out most of the drug discovery process ultimately via computers rather than traditional labs that require biological materials, strict safety requirements and a lot of time.
“This is the most useful and number one application for AI,” Hassabis said in an interview. He added, “One day our mission is to solve all diseases.”
Allogeneity is studying potential treatments, including those focusing on cancer and immune disorders. Last year, they signed a research partnership with two major drug makers Elilily and Novartis, potentially bringing billions of payments through promising drug breakthroughs.
But like many things related to AI, the job, hiring top research talent to do it, is expensive. Hassabis said Isomorphic didn’t need capital — its parent company reported profits of more than $100 billion last year, but bringing in external partners makes sense.
Hassabis’s idea made it possible for a long time. However, he added that he wanted to pin the supporters over the long term, which also had a deep focus on life sciences.
Additional money will help Isomorphic expand its stable research model like Alphafold, recruiting the best talent across the science field.
“The company’s ambition is to become a fully stacked life sciences company, so it will require more capital to create more drugs and invest in technology platforms,” said Vince Hankes, a thriving partner who has led many of the company’s AI investments.
Hassabis added that he wants to be selective with a partner of the same type. Formal consultations with Thrive took place over several months.
Funding is another big bet by 15-year-old Thrive, who put together money to invest in companies like Instagram and Payments Processor Stripe. He recently focused on AI companies, leading the recent round at OpenAI, which nearly doubled its valuation to $157 billion, winning Analytics Provider Databricks and programming startup Anysphere.
“Our hope is for AI to fundamentally change the way drugs are created and discovered,” said Joshua Kushner, founder and managing partner of Thrive. “Isomorphisms push the boundaries of what small molecule drug discovery is possible.”
Over the next year or so, the isomorphism hopes to create more breakthroughs with computational models like Alphafold, perhaps bringing drug candidates closer to preclinical trials, Hassabis said.
Isomorphic will likely raise money from more outside investors, he added. The goal is for the company to become an independent business.
“This will be one of the most consequential companies,” he said. “We want it to be a real powerhouse in the industry.”
Source: www.nytimes.com
