Google DeepMind’s moonshot, Isomorphic Labs, is gearing up to launch its first ever human trial of AI-designed drugs. The hitherto lesser-known Google subsidiary aims to revolutionize drug development by using advanced AI to create medicines more quickly, affordably, and accurately than traditional methods.
Colin Murdoch, Isomorphic Labs president and Google DeepMind’s chief business officer, confirmed that human trials are imminent. “There are people sitting in our office in King’s Cross, London, working, and collaborating with AI to design drugs for cancer. That’s happening right now,” said Murdoch. “The next big milestone is actually going out to clinical trials, starting to put these things into human beings. We’re staffing up now. We’re getting very close.”
Isomorphic Labs emerged from DeepMind’s groundbreaking AlphaFold AI system, which can predict protein structures with remarkable accuracy. This technology evolved from simply predicting individual protein shapes to modeling how proteins interact with other molecules like DNA and drugs.
“This was the inspiration for Isomorphic Labs,” Murdoch explained. “It really demonstrates that we could do something very foundational in AI that could help unlock drug discovery.” Since launching in 2021, Isomorphic has partnered with major pharmaceutical companies including Novartis and Eli Lilly, and secured $600 million in funding in April 2025 to accelerate its mission of developing new treatments for cancer and immune system disorders.
The ambition at @IsomorphicLabs is immense – they’re rethinking drug discovery from the ground up, using AI. 💊
Join Head of Medicinal Drug Design @_rebecca_paul & Chief AI Officer @maxjaderberg as they share the possibilities of AI in tackling disease with host @fryrsquared.… pic.twitter.com/v4WQR6SOjb— Google DeepMind (@GoogleDeepMind) June 5, 2025
Thrilled to announce @IsomorphicLabs has raised $600M to turbocharge our mission to one day solve all disease with the help of AI.
I’ve long felt that improving human health is the most important thing we can do with AI & today marks a big step towards a new era of drug… pic.twitter.com/OQdjy7sF3A— Demis Hassabis (@demishassabis) March 31, 2025
The company was born from one of DeepMind’s most celebrated breakthroughs: AlphaFold, an AI system capable of predicting protein structures with a high level of accuracy. https://t.co/BIPSGjiH9C— FORTUNE (@FortuneMagazine) July 6, 2025
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Cover: Patrick Gawande / Mashable India