Google DeepMind has recently announced that it has open sourced the AlphaFold 3 model, making its training weights available for academic researchers and scientists to use for non-commercial purposes. This move was promised by Google DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli six months ago when they announced their plans to expand the accessibility of AlphaFold 3 for the scientific community.
AlphaFold 3 was released in May 2024 and has been hailed as a game-changing protein folding model with 50% better accuracy. It has the ability to predict the structure and interactions of all biological molecules, including proteins, DNA, RNA, and ligands. The model was founded by Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis in 2021 and is a sister company of Google DeepMind. Isomorphic Labs, the company behind AlphaFold 3, aims to revolutionize drug discovery with AI and potentially build a multi-billion dollar business by accelerating research and improving clinical trial success.
Hassabis has stated that AI-designed drugs could be available in the next couple of years and he hopes to achieve both commercial success and societal benefits with Isomorphic Labs. The company has a strong team, including tech veteran Miles Congreve as chief scientific officer and Sergei Yakneen as chief technology officer. Isomorphic Labs has also recently announced partnerships with two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Eli Lilly & Co. and Novartis AG, with a combined value of close to $3 billion.
In collaboration with Isomorphic Labs, Google DeepMind has also made significant breakthroughs in drug discovery by predicting over 200 million protein structures using AlphaFold. This was achieved by training the model with nearly 100,000 known proteins. The model’s accuracy in predicting protein structures has the potential to unlock treatments for diseases that were previously untreatable.
Google DeepMind has also launched AlphaProteo, an AI system that generates novel proteins designed to bind to specific target molecules. This is poised to significantly advance research in drug design, disease understanding, and other health applications. With the open sourcing of AlphaFold 3 and the advancements made by Isomorphic Labs, the future of drug discovery and treatment looks promising.
