With $40 million, former DeepMind employees launch startup ‘laser-focused’ on AI protein design

Where is DeepMind’s AI protein design spinout? The Alphabet-owned AI company took the biology world by storm in 2020 with AlphaFold2, the protein structure prediction AI platform that “solved” a decades-old biology problem. In 2021, the company spun out Isomorphic Labs, an AI drug discovery company. But Isomorphic’s initial focus is on small-molecule drug discovery, with protein-based drugs remaining a distant twinkle in the company’s eye.

Watching the Isomorphic spinout was…