{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-02-10-isomorphic-isodde/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-02-10-isomorphic-isodde/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-02-10-isomorphic-isodde","date":"2026-02-10","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Isomorphic Labs unveils IsoDDE drug-discovery engine, hailed as 'an AlphaFold 4'","deck":"But proprietary","takeaway":null,"category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"pending","labels":["Event confirmed","Awaiting review"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Nature: 'An AlphaFold 4' — scientists marvel at DeepMind drug spin-off's exclusive new AI","url":"https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00365-7","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"nature.com"},{"n":2,"title":"Scientific American (reprint of Nature news)","url":"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/an-alphafold-4-scientists-marvel-at-deepmind-drug-spin-offs-exclusive-new-ai/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"scientificamerican.com"}],"official":0,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-09-29","orgs":["Isomorphic Labs","Google DeepMind"],"title":"Isomorphic Labs unveils IsoDDE drug-discovery engine, hailed as 'an AlphaFold 4' — but proprietary","summary":"On 10 Feb 2026 DeepMind spin-off Isomorphic Labs released a 27-page technical report on IsoDDE, a proprietary drug-discovery engine that outperforms AlphaFold 3-era tools and Boltz-2 on protein–ligand binding, affinity and antibody-structure prediction; outside scientists called it \"on the scale of an AlphaFold 4\" but lamented the lack of details.","key_facts":["Announced 2026-02-10 via a 27-page technical report; model not released","Beats Boltz-2 and physics-based methods at binding-affinity prediction; state of the art on antibody–target interactions; generalises to molecules unlike its training data","Mohammed AlQuraishi: 'a major advance, on the scale of an AlphaFold4... The problem is that we know nothing of the details.'"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["drug-discovery","protein-structure","alphafold","biology"],"science":{"field":"biology","subfield":"drug discovery / structural biology","problem":"Predicting protein–ligand binding poses and affinities and antibody–antigen structures","result":"Proprietary engine reported to beat Boltz-2 and physics-based methods on binding-affinity prediction and reach state of the art on antibody–target structures, generalising to molecules unlike its training data.","open_since":"","ai_system":["IsoDDE"],"human_role":"Human-designed system; results reported by the developer","verification":{"key":"preprint","label":"Preprint only","text":"Company technical report only; not peer-reviewed, model not released"},"status":"pending","shock":"Mohammed AlQuraishi called it 'a major advance, on the scale of an AlphaFold4' while noting 'we know nothing of the details'."},"body_md":"## What happened\n\nIsomorphic Labs, led by Demis Hassabis, described IsoDDE, a successor-class system to AlphaFold 3 aimed at drug discovery, in a technical report without releasing code or weights.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nShows AI structural biology continuing to advance fast, but also a shift from DeepMind's open-science AlphaFold tradition toward proprietary commercial models.","disputed":[{"label":"Verification","text":"Company technical report only; not peer-reviewed, model not released","sources":[]}],"related":[{"id":"2026-08-05-hassabis-steps-aside-deepmind","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-08-05-hassabis-steps-aside-deepmind/","date":"2026-08-05","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Demis Hassabis steps aside as Google DeepMind CEO","deck":"Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over, Jeff Dean leaves","takeaway":"The head of the lab that produced AlphaGo, AlphaFold and Gemini stepped back from running it during the most competitive stretch of the frontier race.","category":"business","category_label":"Business","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":10,"official":4,"filed":"2026-09-29","updated":"2026-10-10","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google","Alphabet"]}],"people":[{"id":"demis-hassabis","name":"Demis Hassabis","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/demis-hassabis/"}],"posts":[],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"edit","text":"See [Isomorphic Labs raises $2.1B Series B](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-05-12-isomorphic-labs-series-b/) for the $2.1B Series B and the slipped clinical-trial timeline"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"edit","text":"Added science block (science & math tab)"},{"date":"2026-09-29","type":"filed","text":"Created"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-09-29","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-09-29","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-10-04"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":null,"in_training_data":true}],"short_url":null}