How a Google DeepMind Spin-off Hunts Hidden Drug Targets

IEEE Spectrum AI · 1 month ago

Isomorphic Labs, a Google DeepMind spin-off, developed the Isomorphic Drug Design Engine to identify hidden protein binding pockets and predict drug-protein interactions beyond what existing AlphaFold models can achieve. The system successfully predicted a previously unknown cryptic pocket on cereblon protein that was only recently published in a Nature paper in January. The tool aims to make more disease-associated proteins tractable as drug targets by modeling interactions with small molecules, antibodies, peptides, and other therapeutic compounds.