2024年，AlphaFold 2的开发者Demis Hassabis和John Jumper也因此获得诺贝尔化学奖。这一里 程碑式突破开启了AI在生物医学从概念验证迈向实际应用的分水岭——AlphaFold时刻。 第二个"AlphaFold时刻"即将来临。 2025年12月16日，成立仅1年9个月的生物科技初创公司Chai Discovery宣布完成1.3亿美元的B轮 融资，投后估值达到13亿美元（约合92亿元人民币），正式跻身AI制药独角兽行列。这距离其上一 轮7000万美元的A轮融资，仅过去了不到四个月。 药界ChatGPT 。 作者丨 冯汝梅 编辑丨 关雎 图源 丨Midjourney 2020年，Google DeepMind 开发的人工智能系统AlphaFold 2，将蛋白质结构预测从传统实验方法 的"数年时间"缩短至"几分钟到几小时"，且精度达到实验测定水平，解决了困扰生物学界50年的"蛋 白质折叠难题"。 这家初创企业正在利用前沿AI技术加速药物发现，核心目标是打造一个"分子计算机辅助设计套件"， 实现从零开始设计完整疗法，最终将生物学从"描述性科学"转变为"工程学科"。 目前，公司已开发出两 ...

AI Transformation in Disease Research - AI is revolutionizing disease understanding and treatment, particularly in protein study [1] - AlphaFold 2 reduces protein structure determination from months to minutes using deep learning [1] NVIDIA DGX Spark Performance - NVIDIA DGX Spark delivers data center-class performance for protein AI with the Grace Blackwell architecture [2] - DGX Spark offers up to 1 Petaflop of compute and 128GB of coherent memory [2] - It eliminates GPU memory bottlenecks on MSA databases and the need for shared HPC or cloud clusters [2] Accessibility and Capabilities - DGX Spark enables private folding of proteome-scale datasets beyond laptop or desktop capabilities [3] - It's a personal AI supercomputer for digital biology, bringing capabilities to researchers everywhere [3]

AI's Impact on Cognitive Abilities - AI's increasing reliance is linked to diminished critical thinking abilities due to reduced deep reflective thinking [7] - AI hallucinations, with legal queries showing hallucination rates of 60% to 80%, hinder problem-solving and communication skills [8][9] - Using AI for decision-making can decrease brain functions related to questioning assumptions and generating alternative solutions [15][16] - Cognitive offloading, delegating mental tasks to machines, can weaken cognitive abilities in the long run [18] Human Intelligence vs AI - Human intelligence integrates reasoning, problem-solving, memory, language, perception, creativity, and pattern recognition [12] - AI exhibits functional creativity but lacks the emotional depth, contextual understanding, and interdisciplinary thinking of human creativity [14] - World Economic Forum lists creativity as a top 5 skill needed to succeed in 2025 [15] Neuroplasticity and Mitigation Strategies - Neuroplasticity allows the brain to adapt, and whether AI alters brain structure depends on active engagement with data [22] - Actively assessing AI outputs maintains brain activity, while passively consuming them decreases cognitive functions [23][24] - Reading high-quality literature enhances empathy, critical thinking, and creativity [26] - The average human attention span has shrunk to 825% seconds as of 2015, shorter than a goldfish's 9 seconds [30]

Core Insights - Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs, has made significant contributions to AI, particularly in drug development and protein structure prediction, with his work leading to the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold [5][10][19] - Isomorphic Labs, established in 2021, focuses on AI-driven drug discovery, leveraging AlphaFold's technology to enhance the drug development process [3][10][19] Company Overview - Isomorphic Labs has developed a unified AI drug design engine that utilizes multiple next-generation AI models applicable across various therapeutic areas [3][10] - The company recently secured $600 million in funding, led by Thrive Capital, to further develop its AI drug design engine and advance treatment solutions into clinical stages [3][10] Technological Advancements - AlphaFold 3, released in May 2024, significantly improves the prediction of protein structures and molecular interactions, enhancing drug development efficiency by at least 50% compared to traditional methods [14][16] - The AI drug design engine integrates advanced AI technologies, including diffusion models and multi-task reinforcement learning, to streamline the drug discovery process, reducing the timeline from an average of 5-10 years to 1-2 years [16][17] Market Potential - The global AI drug discovery market is projected to reach $20 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 30% [19] - The industry is witnessing a surge in investment, with over a hundred startups and large pharmaceutical companies actively engaging in AI research and development [19][20] Strategic Collaborations - Isomorphic Labs has formed strategic partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis and Eli Lilly, to co-develop AI-assisted drug discovery projects [10][11] - These collaborations aim to explore challenging drug targets and expand the scope of AI applications in drug development [11][19]