Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs, the AI-powered drug discovery arm born from DeepMind, is preparing to begin its first human clinical trials of drugs designed using artificial intelligence.
Isomorphic Labs President Colin Murdoch said the company is “getting very close” to testing AI-developed medicines in humans, News.Az reports, citing Fortune.
“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,” Murdoch noted.
The company emerged in 2021 from DeepMind’s revolutionary AlphaFold breakthrough, an AI system capable of accurately predicting protein structures. This development laid the foundation for using AI to accelerate and refine drug discovery.
Backed by a $600 million funding round in April 2025 and collaborations with pharmaceutical giants Novartis and Eli Lilly, Isomorphic is building what it calls a “world-class drug design engine.” The system aims to dramatically cut the time and cost of drug development while boosting success rates, which currently stand at about 10% once clinical trials begin.
The company is currently developing drug candidates in areas like oncology and immunology. While some projects support existing pharma pipelines, others are original Isomorphic programs expected to enter early-stage trials before being licensed.
Murdoch envisions a future where AI could fully design a drug at the push of a button: “One day we hope to be able to say, well, here’s a disease, and then click a button and out pops the design for a drug to address that disease.”
