Alphabet To Use AI To Discover New Drugs

Google ($GOOGL@US) parent company Alphabet has launched a new drug discovery company in the U.K. called Isomorphic Labs. The company will build on research carried out by London artificial intelligence lab DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014. The CEO of DeepMind is also the founder and CEO of Isomorphic Labs, and the commercial venture seeks to reimagine the entire drug discovery process from the ground up. While the companies may collaborate, Isomorphic Labs stresses that it has its own dedicated resources. Isomorphic Labs plans to use AI software to create new drugs and medicines. Identifying new drugs is a complex trial-and-error process that involves combining many different compounds in different ways. Several companies, including London’s BenevolentAI and San Francisco’s Atomwise, believe that AI can speed up the process. AI methods can analyze data and build predictive and generative models of complex biological phenomena. Alphabet has several other companies working on health care, including Verily, which develops software for the health care sector, and Calico, which focuses on aging and extending human life. DeepMind has also worked on health care, but this was absorbed by Google in 2018 after a controversial deal with Britain’s National Health Service.