Isomorphic Labs prepares first human trials of AI-developed drugs

Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet subsidiary built on the foundations of DeepMind and AlphaFold, is preparing for the first clinical trials of drugs developed using artificial intelligence, company president Colin Murdoch told Fortune.

"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," Murdoch said.

Isomorphic Labs was founded in 2021 as a spin-off of DeepMind after the breakthrough of AlphaFold, a system that accurately predicts protein structure. The latest version, AlphaFold 3, allows you to model the interactions of proteins with DNA, drugs, and other molecules, making it useful for developing new drugs.

In 2024, the company signed joint research contracts with pharmaceutical giants Novartis and Eli Lilly. And in April 2025, it attracted $600 million in investment led by Thrive Capital.

Isomorphic Labs is working on a platform that will combine the expertise of pharmacists with the capabilities of machine learning. The company not only supports partner projects, but also independently initiates drug development in the fields of oncology and immunology. After early-stage trials, it plans to license its developments.

Murdoch believes that using AI will not only speed up and reduce the cost of development, but also significantly increase the chances of success in clinical trials. In the future, the team aims to automate the process: identifying diseases and using AI to obtain a finished drug design.