Alphabet’s Isomorphic Labs expands to Cambridge with $3B in pharma deals

Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet spinoff focused on AI-driven drug discovery, is establishing its first U.S. office in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as the company prepares to advance its drug candidates into clinical trials. The move positions the London-based company closer to American pharmaceutical partners and clinical development infrastructure, marking a significant milestone in its evolution from AI research to therapeutic development.

What you should know: Isomorphic Labs built its platform on DeepMind‘s AlphaFold protein structure prediction technology and has secured major pharmaceutical partnerships worth billions in potential value.

• The company raised $600 million in external funding in March, led by Thrive Capital, a New York-based investment firm, marking its first investment round beyond parent company Alphabet’s support.
• Development partnerships with Eli Lilly, a major U.S. pharmaceutical company, and Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical giant, are worth $82.5 million upfront with nearly $3 billion in potential milestone payments.
• The company has internal drug development programs in oncology and immunology moving toward clinical trials.

Key hire: Ben Wolf joins as chief medical officer to lead the Cambridge office and build Isomorphic’s clinical development capabilities.

• Wolf previously served as CMO at Relay Therapeutics, a computational drug discovery company focused on cancer treatments.
• Despite his clinical focus, Wolf will also contribute to advancing Isomorphic’s drug discovery engine, reflecting the company’s integrated approach to AI-driven development.

The big picture: Isomorphic’s U.S. expansion comes during a challenging period for Boston-area biotechs, with companies like Relay Therapeutics executing multiple layoffs and reducing office space.

• The Cambridge office will start with up to a dozen employees, less than 10% of Isomorphic’s 200-person workforce concentrated in London and Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Future hiring plans include medicinal chemistry, machine learning, and computational biology roles as the platform expands beyond small molecules to biologics.

How the technology works: Isomorphic’s platform models drug interactions at the atomic level, allowing it to work with both small molecules and larger biological drugs.

• “Technically, the platform models everything in terms of atoms,” said President Colin Murdoch. “Biologics and small molecules look pretty much the same when you look at them at that level.”
• The company has evolved from focusing solely on small molecule drugs to expanding into biologics development.

In plain English: Think of Isomorphic’s AI like a microscopic architect that can see how drugs and proteins fit together at the smallest possible level—individual atoms. Whether designing a traditional pill (small molecule) or a complex biological treatment like an antibody (biologics), the AI treats everything as a collection of atoms that need to connect properly, much like puzzle pieces that must fit perfectly to work.

What they’re saying: Company leadership emphasizes the strategic importance of proximity to U.S. pharmaceutical partners and clinical infrastructure.

• “Whether they’re headquartered in Boston or not, they’ve got a strong presence there, so it’s helpful to be close to our partners,” Murdoch explained.
• “Our core thesis was, and is, that we can use AI to really transform and reimagine how we discover drugs,” he added.
• “We’re advancing quickly towards the clinic,” Murdoch noted, though he declined to project specific clinical timelines for drug candidates.