Google parent company Alphabet has launched a new business, Isomorphic Laboratories, that will use AI for drug discovery.

The new company will build on work done by London-based AI firm DeepMind.

Last year, DeepMind’s product AlphaFold2 was recognised as a solution to the challenge of “protein folding”, using AI to predict the 3D structure of a protein directly from its amino acid sequence.

Isomorphic will aim to build AI models that can predict how drugs will interact with the body.

DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis will also serve as the chief executive for Isomorphic, however the companies will remain separate, though they will collaborate on some projects.

The newly created company is looking to hire people with expertise in AI, biology, medicinal chemistry, biophysics, and engineering.

DeepMind, which was founded in 2010 in London, gained public recognition in 2016 when their AI system AlphaGo beat Go world champion Lee Sedol in a five-game tournament.

Artificial intelligence is continuing to see emerging applications in new areas.

September research by the UK Meteorological Office and DeepMind demonstrated how AI could be used to predict short-term weather patterns.

“Isomorphic” refers to two structures which are corresponding or similar in form and relations.

“At its most fundamental level, I think biology can be thought of as an information processing system, albeit an extraordinarily complex and dynamic one,” said Demis Hassabis. “Taking this perspective implies there may be a common underlying structure between biology and information science - an isomorphic mapping between the two - hence the name of the company.

“Biology is likely far too complex and messy to ever be encapsulated as a simple set of neat mathematical equations.”

He added: “But just as mathematics turned out to be the right description language for physics, biology may turn out to be the perfect type of regime for the application of AI.”

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