{"id":8797,"date":"2021-11-05T20:26:29","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T20:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1372284"},"modified":"2021-11-05T20:26:29","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T20:26:29","slug":"google-launches-deepmind-2-a-pharmaceutical-hullabaloo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8797","title":{"rendered":"Google launches DeepMind 2, a pharmaceutical hullabaloo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Alphabet (the umbrella corp that owns Google and DeepMind) just launched Isomorphic Labs (IL). According to the new company\u2019s blog, it\u2019s \u201creimagining the entire drug discovery process from first principles with an AI-first approach.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words: The CEO of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, is going to run a drug-discovery spinoff. <\/span><\/p>\n

Up front:<\/strong> This seems like a really good thing. DeepMind\u2019s AlphaFold 2<\/a> has supposedly revolutionized how researchers study protein structures. And Hassabis is obviously pretty good at running a lab.<\/span><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s just have a gander at the company\u2019s blog<\/a>, shall we?<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an interesting quote:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

At its most fundamental level, I think biology can be thought of as an information processing system, albeit an extraordinarily complex and dynamic one. Taking this perspective implies there may be a common underlying structure between biology and information science \u2013 an isomorphic mapping between the two \u2013 hence the name of the company. <\/span><\/p>\n

Biology is likely far too complex and messy to ever be encapsulated as a simple set of neat mathematical equations. 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m pretty sure most biologists and computer scientists would disagree with the assertion that a deep learning model could solve human biology.<\/span><\/p>\n

Background:<\/strong> What IL\u2019s allegedly doing is applying AI to optimize the drug-discovery process. This sounds huge and important, and in some ways it is, but the reality is a bit different than the headlines would have you believe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building on AlphaFold 2\u2019s work, IL is in a position to potentially speed-up the discovery of new drugs. Those in the industry know this doesn\u2019t necessarily mean drugs will reach market faster.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is because the drug discovery process isn\u2019t what\u2019s gumming up the works. If you\u2019re imagining a billion sick people waiting for Alphabet to save them, you\u2019ve got it all wrong. Those billion sick people are waiting for a pharmaceutical company to decide it\u2019s worth manufacturing, marketing, and distributing a treatment for them. <\/span><\/p>\n

IL can discover all the drugs it wants. But until Alphabet decides to belly up to the big pharma table and start milling pills itself, this is a bigger deal for Alphabet\u2019s share holders than it is for sick people.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quick take:<\/strong> Everyone\u2019s optimistic about this endeavor for good reason. It\u2019s a cool startup that\u2019s bound to do some important things. But we shouldn\u2019t lose sight of the limitations of deep learning and the iron-clad grip that big pharma has on the drug industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019d be great if Alphabet actually used its power, influence, and trillion-dollar coffer to take on big pharma and come up with a way to actually get drugs to sick people.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I guess we can always use yet another AI company<\/a> trying to apply algorithms to drug discovery.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alphabet (the umbrella corp that owns Google and DeepMind) just launched Isomorphic Labs (IL). According to the new company\u2019s blog, it\u2019s \u201creimagining the entire drug discovery process from first principles with an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8797"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}