UK BUSINESS AI UNIVERSE: Labs: Drug discovery

Drug discovery

8 labs · 4 models and products Theme: Companies · Generated from this page's data. Click a name to open its panel on the Labs page. Records resting on one source are tagged "one source".

AI drug discovery uses computer models to predict how molecules behave, such as what shape a protein takes or whether a drug candidate will bind to it, so that fewer laboratory experiments are needed before a medicine reaches trials. Isomorphic Labs, launched from DeepMind in 2021, co-developed AlphaFold 3 and builds AI models that design medicines for its own programmes and for drug companies (per the site). Alchemab Therapeutics combines deep sequencing and AI to find protective antibodies in people who resist disease, and DaltonTx is building "Dalton", an AI decision engine for drug discovery teams (per the site).

Context

The government's AI for Science Strategy sets a mission to develop trial-ready drugs within 100 days by 2030. 20 November 2025 gov.uk/government/publications/ai-for-science-stWe will accelerate drug discovery to develop trial-ready drugs within 100 days by 2030
DSIT invested £8 million in OpenBind, a consortium building a dataset of how drugs bind to proteins. 20 November 2025 gov.uk/government/publications/ai-for-science-stDSIT has invested £8 million in the ‘OpenBind’ consortium
The strategy records that Isomorphic Labs was launched from DeepMind in 2021. 20 November 2025 gov.uk/government/publications/ai-for-science-stIsomorphic Labs was launched from DeepMind in 2021
AlphaFold 3, from Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, predicts how proteins interact with other molecules, including drugs. 8 May 2024 nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07487-w.pdfThe new AlphaFold model demonstrates significantly improved accuracy over many previous specialised tools
Isomorphic Labs raised $600 million in its first external round, led by Thrive Capital with GV (reported). 31 March 2025 isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-annoIsomorphic Labs announces it has raised $600 Million in its first external funding round.
Isomorphic Labs reports its Drug Design Engine more than doubles AlphaFold 3's accuracy on the hardest test cases. 10 February 2026 isomorphiclabs.com/articles/the-isomorphic-labs-IsoDDE more than doubles the accuracy of AlphaFold 3 on the most difficult systems.

Key papers

Accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 3 Nature · 8 May 2024

Labs Round 8 (31 Oct 2026): introduction and facts as the researchers wrote them; "(per the site)" marks a sentence resting on this site's own description of that lab.

Record	What it is	Place	Links	Confidence
Alchemab TherapeuticsCompanies	Antibody drug company that combines deep sequencing and AI to find protective antibodies in people who resist disease; its ALS antibody is licensed to Lilly.Key facts Series A total £109m incl. £25m British Business Bank extension (2026-07-09), described as the Bank's largest life-sciences investment to date; ATLX-1282 (ALS) in clinical development and licensed to Eli Lilly; aims to grow its antibody dataset beyond one billion sequences Profile Founders scientific founders listed: Rachael Bashford-Rogers — University of Oxford; Ben Larman — Johns Hopkins University; Ruth McKernan — SV Health Investors; Uri Laserson — Mount Sinai; Jane Osbourn — called "Co-Founder" in the Sep 2024 CEO release Chief executive Jane Osbourn — from 12 Sep 2024 (succeeded Young Kwon; earlier CEOs Douglas Treco from Jun 2021, Young Kwon from May 2022) Chief scientist or research lead Kim Long — Vice President of Research; Jake Galson — Vice President of Technology Other leaders Ben Porter-Brown — Chief Medical Officer (from 10 Sep 2026); Ulrich Wendt — Chief Business Officer (from 20 Mar 2026); Paul Varley — Chief Development Officer; Alexander Hewitson — Chief Operating Officer; Kate Bingham — Chair; Malcolm Gates — VP Finance and Company Secretary What it does Alchemab looks for antibodies in people who resist or survive disease, such as long-term cancer survivors, and uses deep learning on antibody data to turn them into medicines, mainly for brain and nerve diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer's and Huntington's. Its lead ALS antibody is licensed to Eli Lilly and is in a first human trial. Research focus "… the next generation of antibody therapeutics for hard to treat diseases"; antibody language models and immune-repertoire analysis. Models and products AntiBERTa — antibody-specific machine-learning language model — 24 May 2022; ATLX-1282 — receptor-agonist antibody for ALS, licensed to Lilly, Phase 1 — 8 Sep 2025; ATLX-2847 — PGDH enzyme inhibitor for muscle atrophy, IND planned H2 2026 — not stated; ATLX-1088 — CD33 antibody for Alzheimer's disease — unveiled 22 Jun 2023; ATLX-1095 — HTT programme for Huntington's disease — not stated Customers or partners named Eli Lilly — licence for ATLX-1282, up to $415m — 6 May 2025 — https://www.alchemab.com/news/; Eli Lilly — collaboration on up to five ALS antibodies — 14 Jan 2025 — https://www.alchemab.com/news/; The Michael J. Fox Foundation — US$595,000 Parkinson's grant — 6 Jun 2024 — https://www.alchemab.com/news/; Medicines Discovery Catapult — Huntington's programme and joint £1.7m Innovate UK grant — 16 Dec 2022 — https://www.alchemab.com/news/; NVIDIA — access to Cambridge-1 supercomputer — 22 Mar 2022 — https://www.alchemab.com/news/; AstraZeneca — prostate cancer research collaboration — 5 May 2021 — https://www.alchemab.com/news/ Selected papers Predictability of B cell clonal persistence and immune surveillance in breast cancer — Nature Immunology — May 2024 — https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-024-01821-0; Enhancing Antibody Language Models with Structural Information — NeurIPS 2023 MLSB workshop — 2023 — https://www.mlsb.io/papers_2023/Enhancing_Antibody_Language_Models_with_Structural_Information.pdf; Becoming Fluent in Proteins — Cell Systems — Nov 2023 — https://www.cell.com/cell-systems/fulltext/S2405-4712%2823%2900300-9; Building Representation Learning Models for Antibody Comprehension — Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology — Nov 2023 — http://m.cshperspectives.cshlp.org/content/early/2023/11/27/cshperspect.a041462; Cross-Reactive SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies From Deep Mining of Early Patient Responses — Frontiers in Immunology — Jun 2021 — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.678570/full; Deep Sequencing of B Cell Receptor Repertoires From COVID-19 Patients Reveals Strong Convergent Immune Signatures — Frontiers in Immunology — Dec 2020 — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.605170/full Rounds found 15 Apr 2021 — Series A — £60m ($82m) — lead not stated in text read — not stated (new DEAL-LAB-16006); 8 Sep 2025 — Series A extension — amount not stated — not stated — not stated (new DEAL-LAB-16007); 9 Jul 2026 — Series A extension — £25m ($34m) — British Business Bank — not stated (already DEAL-LAB-4023) Awards and programmes OBN Awards Best Emerging Biotech Start-Up — 14 Jun 2021; Illumina Accelerator first global cohort — 23 Jun 2020; NVIDIA Cambridge-1 access — 22 Mar 2022; Innovate UK Biomedical Catalyst £1.7m (with Medicines Discovery Catapult) — 16 Dec 2022 Status now Clinical-stage; ATLX-1282 has been in a Phase 1 first-in-human study since September 2025, and a Chief Medical Officer joined in September 2026. Labs Round 8 deep profile (31 Oct 2026), as the researchers wrote it; confidence: one source (all from the company; no second source opened). Sources alchemab.com/news/ alchemab.com/about/	— (not stated in source)	uktech.news/biotech/alchemab-therapeutics-extend · alchemab.com/news/ · alchemab.com/about/	one source
Cerella (Optibrium)Chips, models and products	Optibrium's AI platform that learns from a company's drug-discovery data to suggest which compounds to make next. liveKey facts Launched 2021; case study with Genentech listed on Optibrium siteMade by Optibrium · 2021	Cambridge (via Optibrium)	optibrium.com/about-optibrium/ · optibrium.com/	lab's own pages
chemSEEK (PharmEnable)Chips, models and products	PharmEnable's set of AI methods that match drug targets to molecules from its ChemUniverse virtual library. liveKey facts Spelt "ChemSeek" in 2020 sources and "chemSEEK" in 2024; works with ChemUniverse, a virtual database of chemically diverse moleculesMade by PharmEnable · 2024-12-10	Cambridge (via PharmEnable)	ch.cam.ac.uk/news/pharmenable-raises-ps18-millio · enterprise.cam.ac.uk/case-studies/pharmenable-cr	lab's own pages
DaltonTxCompanies	London company building "Dalton", an AI decision engine that learns from every experiment to help drug discovery teams design small molecules and antibodies.Key facts £4m seed (2025-09-23); Dalton platform launched 2026-06-04; antibody discovery module launched 2026-10-01; Gates Foundation tuberculosis grant 2026-10-15; founded on University of Oxford research (Oxford University Innovation support); named in GOV.UK AI for Science Strategy (2025-11-20); 18 staff named on company site Profile Founded Not stated (emerged from stealth with seed round, 23 Sep 2025) Founders Garry Pairaudeau — co-founder and CEO; Anthony Bradley — co-founder and CSO; Adrian Rossall — co-founder; Charlotte Deane — co-founder (Professor of Structural Bioinformatics, University of Oxford) Chief executive Garry Pairaudeau (named CEO, 4 Jun 2026) Chief scientist or research lead Anthony Bradley — CSO and co-founder Hq London, King's Cross (England: London); other_offices: not stated What it does DaltonTx sells a drug-discovery software platform, Dalton, that plugs into pharma, biotech and contract-research workflows. It links data, AI models and lab results so scientists can design, make and choose small molecules and antibodies; it calls this an "intelligence backbone" for R&D rather than running its own drug pipeline. Research focus Adaptive, continuously learning discovery platform for small molecules and biologics; agentic scientific reasoning; antibody structure analysis with the University of Oxford. Models and products Dalton — drug-discovery platform described as a "continuous learning engine" — launched June 2026; Dalton engine antibody extension — antibody design and structure prediction, chat interface — 7 Oct 2026 Customers or partners named Sygnature Discovery — CRO client/partner on Dalton launch — 4 Jun 2026 — https://pharmaphorum.com/news/meet-dalton-new-ai-powered-drug-discovery-platform; Bonito Biosciences — uses Dalton for CNS oligo therapies — 4 Jun 2026 — https://pharmaphorum.com/news/meet-dalton-new-ai-powered-drug-discovery-platform; University of Oxford — antibody analysis collaboration — 7 Oct 2026 — https://www.bioprocessintl.com/large-molecule-development/daltontx-announces-ai-breakthrough-in-novel-antibody-discovery Funding total as published £4m (IQ Capital, tech.eu) / £4.1m (redalpine) — as of 23 Sep 2025 — https://iqcapital.vc/news/daltontx-raises-ps4-million-seed-financing-to-build-the-intelligence-backbone-of-drug-discovery Rounds found 23 Sep 2025 — seed — £4m / £4.1m — redalpine (per redalpine; IQ Capital names no lead) — IQ Capital Partners, Seedcamp; support from Oxford University Innovation (already DEAL-LAB-4001) Status now Trading; launched the Dalton platform in June 2026 and extended it to antibody discovery in October 2026. Labs Round 8 deep profile (31 Oct 2026), as the researchers wrote it; confidence: verified (seed round: two investor pages plus trade); people and product one source (trade). Sources iqcapital.vc/news/daltontx-raises-ps4-million-se redalpine.com/post/daltontx-the-intelligence-bac tech.eu/2025/09/23/daltontx-lands-ps4m-to-advanc pharmaphorum.com/news/meet-dalton-new-ai-powered bioprocessintl.com/large-molecule-development/da	London	daltontx.com/news/seed-financing · tech.eu/2025/09/23/daltontx-lands-ps4m-to-advanc · iqcapital.vc/news/daltontx-raises-ps4-million-se · redalpine.com/post/daltontx-the-intelligence-bac	verified
Dataverse (Isomorphic Labs)Chips, models and products	Isomorphic Labs' curated collection of life-science data that feeds its research environment. internal use (date not published)Key facts Named on the Isomorphic technology page (read 30 Oct 2026); no release date published.Made by Isomorphic Labs	London (EC2M 4AG) (via Isomorphic Labs)	isomorphiclabs.com/our-tech	one source
HealxCompanies · also on Start-ups	Cambridge company that uses AI to find treatments for rare diseases and runs its own clinical trials.Why it is here: builds its own generative AI drug-discovery engine for rare diseases Key facts and news (2) What it does Describes itself as an AI-native rare-disease drug company, from discovery to clinic healx.ai/ Status now Lead candidate HLX-1502 (neurofibromatosis); FDA approved the trial and a Phase 2 start was planned by December 2024 (as of 2024-08-02) one source uktech.news/medtech/healx-series-c-round-2024080 Labs Round 8 (31 Oct 2026), from the researchers' rows; one-source items are marked.	Cambridge (CB2 1LA)	Companies House · uktech.news/medtech/healx-series-c-round-2024080 · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov. · sifted.eu/articles/ai-drug-discovery-startups · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.	verified
Isomorphic LabsCompanies	Builds AI models that design medicines, which it uses in its own drug programmes and in work with drug companies. Profile Founders Sir Demis Hassabis — Founder and CEO Chief executive Sir Demis Hassabis — from null Chief scientist or research lead Miles Congreve — Chief Scientific Officer; Sarah Skerratt — Chief Research Officer Other leaders Max Jaderberg — President (from January 2026); Sarah Korman — Chief Business and Legal Officer; Beverley Mallon — Chief People & Experience Officer; Dr Ben Wolf — Chief Medical Officer; Colin Murdoch — described as "Isomorphic Labs' first President" (article title; dates not opened). Scientific Advisory Board: Jennifer Doudna, Sir David MacMillan, Sir Paul Nurse, Sir Menelas Pangalos, Venki Ramakrishnan Hq London (England: London); other_offices: Cambridge, Massachusetts; Lausanne, Switzerland What it does AI drug discovery company that builds on the AlphaFold system. It develops its own AI drug design engine (IsoDDE), runs an in-house therapeutic pipeline it is taking towards the clinic, and works with drug makers including Novartis, Lilly and Johnson & Johnson. Research focus "predictive and generative AI models" for drug design; AI drug design engine (IsoDDE) Models and products IsoDDE — AI drug design engine; funds from the May 2026 round go to its development and deployment — 12 May 2026 Customers or partners named Novartis, Lilly, Johnson & Johnson — named partnerships — 12 May 2026 — https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/press/isomorphic-labs-funding; Eli Lilly — multi-target research collaboration, $45m upfront — 7 Jan 2024 — https://www.isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-kicks-off-2024-with-two-pharmaceutical-collaborations; Novartis — research collaboration, $37.5m upfront — 7 Jan 2024 — same url; Virtual Biology Initiative — joined (homepage item shown dated 18.02.25) — https://isomorphiclabs.com/?amp=&amp= Papers and awards builds on the "Nobel-winning AlphaFold system" (homepage; year not given) Funding total as published null (no total published on pages opened) Rounds found 2025-03-31 — first external round — 600,000,000 USD — Thrive Capital — GV; Alphabet (follow-on); 2026-05-12 — Series B — 2,100,000,000 USD — Thrive Capital — Alphabet, GV (existing); MGX, Temasek, CapitalG, UK Sovereign AI Fund (new). UKTN reports the round as £1.47bn. Uk government links UK Sovereign AI Fund invested in the May 2026 Series B Status now Raised a $2.1bn Series B in May 2026 to develop IsoDDE and move its pipeline towards the clinic; led by Demis Hassabis with Max Jaderberg as President. Labs Round 7 deep profile (30 Oct 2026), as the researchers wrote it; confidence: verified (May 2026 round: company + UKTN); other fields single_source. Sources isomorphiclabs.com/press/isomorphic-labs-funding isomorphiclabs.com/press/isomorphic-labs-funding isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-anno isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-anno isomorphiclabs.com/our-team isomorphiclabs.com/articles/in-conversation-with isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-kick isomorphiclabs.com/?amp=&amp= Models and products (2) Isomorphic Labs Drug Design Engine (IsoDDE) 2026-02-10 internal use (technical report)Isomorphic Labs' combined computer system that predicts molecular structures, binding strength and binding pockets to design drugs. Dataverse (Isomorphic Labs) no date internal use (date not published)Isomorphic Labs' curated collection of life-science data that feeds its research environment. Selected papers (2) Accurate Predictions of Novel Biomolecular Interactions with IsoDDE technical report · 10 Feb 2026The Isomorphic Labs Drug Design Engine more than doubled AlphaFold 3's accuracy on the hardest test cases. Accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 3 Nature · 8 May 2024joint paperAlphaFold 3, built jointly by Isomorphic Labs and Google DeepMind, predicted how proteins and other biological molecules fit together in one model. Key facts and news (9) Research leads Max Jaderberg — President from 2026-01-01 (previously Chief AI Officer); Colin Murdoch stepped down as President one source isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-to-a Research leads Ben Wolf — Chief Medical Officer (by 2025-06-17), previously CMO at Relay Therapeutics one source isomorphiclabs.com/articles/in-conversation-with Status now Preclinical; preparing for clinical development (2026-09-29) one source isomorphiclabs.com/articles/building-a-new-path- Founded 2021 isomorphiclabs.com/articles/building-a-new-path- What it does Uses in-house "proprietary predictive and generative models" covering binding affinity, solubility, permeability and metabolic properties, used daily across the company (30 Jul 2024); AlphaFold 3 "developed jointly by Isomorphic Labs and Google DeepMind"; no further in-house model is named publicly beyond IsoDDE and Dataverse one source isomorphiclabs.com/articles/using-bespoke-ai-mod Research leads Max Jaderberg, President (quoted on technology page) one source isomorphiclabs.com/our-tech News 29 September 2026 "Building a new path to make medicines with AI" (IsoDDE agent optimisation run took 2–4 days) one source isomorphiclabs.com/articles/building-a-new-path- 16 July 2026 "Our approach to bioresilience" (joint with Google DeepMind) one source isomorphiclabs.com/articles/our-approach-to-bior 13 May 2026 Series B investors named by UKTN: Thrive Capital (lead), Alphabet, GV, MGX, Temasek, CapitalG and the UK sovereign AI fund; to fund IsoDDE and pipeline; valuation not reported one source uktech.news/medtech/isomorphic-labs-raises-1-6bn Labs Round 8 (31 Oct 2026), from the researchers' rows; one-source items are marked.	London (EC2M 4AG)	Companies House · isomorphiclabs.com/press/isomorphic-labs-funding · isomorphiclabs.com/articles/isomorphic-labs-anno · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov. · tech.eu/2026/05/13/isomorphic-labs-lands-2-1bn-i	verified
Isomorphic Labs Drug Design Engine (IsoDDE)Chips, models and products	Isomorphic Labs' combined computer system that predicts molecular structures, binding strength and binding pockets to design drugs. internal use (technical report)Key facts Previewed 10 Feb 2026 in a blog post and technical report; used by Isomorphic's own drug design teams. Figures (10 Feb 2026, as claimed): more than doubles AlphaFold 3's accuracy on a hard protein-ligand generalisation benchmark; antibody-antigen high-fidelity accuracy 2.3x AlphaFold 3 and 19.8x Boltz-2. 29 Sep 2026 post describes processes reshaped around it (agent-led search taking 2–4 days). Internal pipeline: oncology and immunology.Made by Isomorphic Labs · 2026-02-10Read the paper	London (EC2M 4AG) (via Isomorphic Labs)	isomorphiclabs.com/articles/the-isomorphic-labs- · isomorphiclabs.com/articles/building-a-new-path-	lab's own pages
OptibriumCompanies	Cambridge software company whose AI and machine-learning tools help chemists design and choose drug molecules.Key facts Founded 2009 by management buyout of the StarDrop business; Cerella AI platform launched 2021; 2023 Xenobiotica paper on quantum mechanics plus machine learning for metabolism prediction; BioPharmics joined 2023; US subsidiary in Cambridge, MA (2022); says over 200 drug-discovery teams use it; debt financing from Shawbrook 2025-07-08 (amount not disclosed); investors include Kester Capital Models and products (1) Cerella (Optibrium) 2021 liveOptibrium's AI platform that learns from a company's drug-discovery data to suggest which compounds to make next.	Cambridge	Companies House · optibrium.com/about-optibrium/ · optibrium.com/about/news/optibriums-quantum-mech · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.	verified
Oxford Drug DesignCompanies	Oxford University spin-out using its own machine-learning platform to design cancer drugs, first for lung and bowel cancer. unknown — latest source May 2022Key facts £2.2m ($2.7m) bridge round May 2022 from ACF Investors, o2h Ventures, Meltwind Advisory and US-based R42 Group; oncology focus (lung and colorectal)	Oxford (HQ not stated in sources)	Companies House · businesscloud.co.uk/news/cancer-fighting-spinout · startupsmagazine.co.uk/article-oxford-drug-desig	one source
PharmEnableCompanies	Cambridge chemistry spin-out using its own AI platform, chemSEEK, to design small-molecule drugs for hard targets.Key facts Spun out of the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry 2016; £1.8m seed 2020 (Cambridge Enterprise lead); $7.5m (£6m) pre-Series A 2023-05-22 led by MP Healthcare (Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma); focus oncology and neurology Models and products (1) chemSEEK (PharmEnable) 2024-12-10 livePharmEnable's set of AI methods that match drug targets to molecules from its ChemUniverse virtual library.	Cambridge	Companies House · enterprise.cam.ac.uk/case-studies/pharmenable-cr · uktech.news/medtech/pharmenable-pre-series-a-202 · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.	verified
Ternary TherapeuticsCompanies · also on Start-ups	London start-up building an AI platform to design 'molecular glue' medicines.Why it is here: London start-up (founded 2024) whose AI models design molecular glues, retrained on its own lab results	London (NW1 3BF)	Companies House · uktech.news/medtech/biotech-building-molecular-g · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov. · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov. · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.	verified