Alphabet-backed start-up Isomorphic Labs has added to the lustre attached to its AI-powered drug discovery engine by raising an eye-watering $1.2 billion in a Series B led by US venture firm Thrive Capital.

Alphabet支持的初创公司Isomorphic Labs在其AI驱动的药物发现引擎的光环上增添了浓墨重彩的一笔，其在由美国风险投资公司Thrive Capital领投的B轮融资中筹集了高达12亿美元的资金。

The London, UK startup said the massive round – also supported by Alphabet and GV alongside new investors MGX, Temasek, CapitalG, and the UK

英国伦敦的这家初创公司表示，此轮融资规模巨大，Alphabet 和 GV 也参与其中，新投资者包括 MGX、淡马锡、CapitalG 和英国。

Sovereign AI Fund

主权人工智能基金

– will be used to refine its IsoDDE discovery platform, fund international expansion, and progress its drug candidate pipeline.

– 将用于完善其IsoDDE发现平台、资助国际扩张并推进其药物候选管线的进展。

It comes just over a year after Isomorphic, which is led by Google DeepMind founder Sir Demis Hassabis, raised $600 million in a first-round financing led by Thrive Capital and GV.

这距离由谷歌DeepMind创始人德米斯·哈萨比斯爵士领导的Isomorphic公司在Thrive Capital和GV领投的首轮融资中筹集6亿美元仅一年多时间。

The sheer scale of the Series B is another endorsement of Isomorphic, coming on top of research collaborations with

B轮融资的规模之大，是对Isomorphic的另一项认可，此外还有研究合作。

Johnson & Johnson

强生公司

, Novartis, and Eli Lilly in the last couple of years that are collectively worth billions of dollars.

，诺华和礼来公司在过去几年中总共价值数百亿美元。

The company was set up in 2021 to develop DeepMind's

该公司成立于 2021 年，旨在开发 DeepMind 的

AlphaFold

阿尔法折叠

engine that, in 2020, became the first to solve the tricky problem of predicting protein folding, unlocking new ways to research how diseases affect the body and develop new medicines that can modify the activity of disease-related proteins.

2020年，这一引擎成为首个解决蛋白质折叠预测难题的工具，开辟了研究疾病如何影响身体的新途径，并开发能够调节疾病相关蛋白活性的新药。

Now in its third iteration, AlphaFold can predict the structure and relationships not only of proteins but just about any biological molecule, including RNA and DNA. The team behind AlphaFold has received significant recognition, including the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, which went to Hassabis, John Jumper, and David Baker..

目前，AlphaFold 已经进入第三版，它不仅可以预测蛋白质的结构和相互作用，还可以预测几乎任何生物分子的结构和关系，包括 RNA 和 DNA。AlphaFold 背后的团队获得了广泛的认可，包括哈萨比斯、约翰·詹普尔和大卫·贝克共同获得的 2024 年诺贝尔化学奖。

Isomorphic Labs recently

Isomorphic Labs最近

published

已发布

(PDF) a subset of the capabilities of IsoDDE, highlighting its predictive accuracy and introducing new capabilities which bridge the gap between structure prediction and real-world drug discovery.

(PDF) IsoDDE功能的一个子集，重点展示了其预测准确性，并介绍了弥合结构预测与现实药物发现之间差距的新功能。

In a statement, Isomorphic said the new financing will be used to move its drugs into clinical testing, fund additional hirings of experts in AI, engineering, drug design, and clinical development across its sites in London, Lausanne in Switzerland, and Cambridge in Massachusetts, US.

在一份声明中，Isomorphic 表示，新的融资将用于将其药物推进到临床试验阶段，并为其位于伦敦、瑞士洛桑和美国马萨诸塞州剑桥的站点招聘更多人工智能、工程、药物设计和临床开发领域的专家。

'This funding round is a massive vote of confidence from a diverse group of top-tier international investors in our AI-first approach to drug design and development,' said Hassabis.

“这一轮融资是对我们以人工智能为先的药物设计与开发方法的极大信任，来自一群多元化的顶级国际投资者，”哈萨比斯表示。

'Now that we have shown our approach is fundamentally sound, our focus is on scaling our technology to its full potential,' he added. 'This capital injection allows us to build out our drug design engine at scale, driving us forward in our mission to solve all disease.'

“既然我们已经证明了我们的方法在根本上是可行的，我们的重点是将我们的技术扩展到其全部潜力，”他补充说。“这笔资金的注入使我们能够大规模构建我们的药物设计引擎，推动我们在解决所有疾病这一使命上的进展。”