Isomorphic Labs Announces IPO Filing to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery Built on AlphaFold Technology

On November 4, 2021, Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced the establishment of a company named “Isomorphic Labs” in the UK. Building upon the London-based AI laboratory DeepMind’s successful research in protein structure prediction, the company aims to apply advanced AI deep learning methods to drug discovery.

Developing new drugs is a lengthy and complex process requiring extensive trial and error, yet Alphabet believes artificial intelligence can accelerate this process. Last November, DeepMind successfully utilized its deep learning AI system, AlphaFold, to accurately predict the 3D structures of proteins based on their amino acid sequences. The accuracy of these predictions rivals that of 3D structures resolved through experimental techniques such as cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), or X-ray crystallography.

Researchers at DeepMind conceptualized folded proteins as a "spatial graph" with a 3D structure, where amino acids serve as the nodes and edges within this graph. Building upon a neural network architecture, they designed the AlphaFold system to predict the structure of this spatial graph. It leverages evolutionarily related amino acid sequences, multiple sequence alignment (MSA), and evaluations of amino acid pairs to optimize the representation of the "spatial graph". The researchers also trained AlphaFold using extensive protein databases. Through continuous iteration, the AlphaFold system learned the ability to accurately predict protein structures directly from amino acid sequences.

▲ AlphaFold's Neural Network Architecture (Image Source: DeepMind Blog)

Approximately eight months later, Alphabet released the protein structure database predicted by this AI system (AlphaFold Protein Structure Database), amplifying the impact of these findings. The database contains over 350,000 predicted protein structures, covering 98.5% of human proteins as well as 20 model organisms commonly used in biological research (E. coli, fruit fly, zebrafish, mouse…). It is freely and openly accessible to researchers worldwide. Dr. Ewan Birney, Director of the European Bioinformatics Institute, hailed it as one of the most important databases since the release of the human genome map.

"You can think of it (Isomorphic Labs) as a sister company to DeepMind," said Mr. Demis Hassabis, Chief Executive Officer of DeepMind. "We will focus on modeling fundamental biological processes, using computers to predict how drugs will behave. Protein interactions, novel small-molecule design, binding affinity, and toxicity analysis are all potential targets for the predictive models."

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