Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs is a new company focused on AI-driven drug discovery

Last year, Alphabet's DeepMind announced its AlphaFold 2 AI showed it could predict how certain proteins would fold in a way that was competitive with experimental data. The news was met with enthusiasm by the scientific community, but it wasn't clear at the time what the breakthrough would mean in practical terms. Now we have a better idea with Alphabet announcing the creation of a new subsidiary called Isomorphic Labs. The company states its goal is to "reimagine" the process of developing new drugs with an AI-first approach. "We believe that the foundational 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," Demis Hassabis, the founder and CEO of Isomorphic Labs said.