insitro vs Isomorphic Labs (2026)
Both apply AI to drug discovery, from different ends. insitro, founded by Daphne Koller, starts from biology: automated cellular experiments and human genetics feed Virtual Human for causal target identification, and TherML designs molecules across modalities. It publishes its methods. Isomorphic Labs starts from structure. Its Drug Design Engine, from the team behind AlphaFold 3, predicts protein ligand structures, pockets, binding affinity and antibody antigen interactions, and is available only through strategic collaborations, with no code, weights or method published. insitro asks which target to pursue; Isomorphic asks how to make a molecule bind it.
- Causal target identification across diseases, built on human genetics and large scale cellular experiments.
- TherML, a design engine spanning small molecules, oligonucleotides and biologics.
- Published methods, including the POSH pooled cell painting platform (Nature Communications, 2025).
- A unified engine for protein ligand structure, pocket identification, binding affinity and antibody antigen modeling, described in February 2026.
- Reported benchmark gains, including more than double AlphaFold 3's accuracy on the least similar protein ligand cases.
- The team behind AlphaFold 3, released with Google DeepMind in 2024.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. insitro and Isomorphic Labs are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | insitro | Isomorphic Labs |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Drug Discovery AI | Drug Discovery AI |
| Founded | 2018 | 2021 |
| Headquarters | South San Francisco, CA | London, United Kingdom |
| Website | insitro.com | isomorphiclabs.com |
Side by Side
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Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
insitro is a South San Francisco AI therapeutics company founded in 2018 by Daphne Koller, built on causal biology. It combines more than 20 petabytes of automated cellular experiments (induced pluripotent stem cells, genome editing, high content phenotyping) with population scale human genetic and clinical data.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Isomorphic Labs is a London based AI drug design company founded in 2021 by Sir Demis Hassabis, who leads it as chief executive. It was launched from DeepMind as an Alphabet company, and with Google DeepMind it released AlphaFold 3 in May 2024. Its Isomorphic Labs Drug Design Engine (IsoDDE), introduced in February 2026, joins proprietary models for protein ligand structure prediction, binding site discovery, binding affinity and antibody antigen modeling with generative agents that design molecules.
Source: AI Health Index, September 2026
Questions buyers ask
How are insitro and Isomorphic Labs priced and sold?
Lilly is a modality partner on the liver fat and fibrosis programs, with insitro retaining full global rights.
Drug companies work with Isomorphic Labs through negotiated research collaborations, opened through a dedicated partnering contact. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 28, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Which settings and specialties do insitro and Isomorphic Labs cover?
In insitro's case, the company chooses diseases where it can mine rich clinical data or build tractable cellular models, and TherML covers small molecules, oligonucleotides and complex biologics including multispecific antibodies and T cell engagers. The ophthalmology programs and the biologics work have no published results yet.
For Isomorphic Labs, the internal pipeline focuses on oncology and immunology, while partnered work spans small molecules with Novartis and Eli Lilly and small molecules and biologics with Johnson & Johnson. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 28, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
What evidence is published for insitro and Isomorphic Labs?
With insitro, a brown adipose tissue study built a machine learning phenotype from UK Biobank MRI in 69,598 people, and knockdown of the prioritized target, BAT-01, cut body weight by 15% over four weeks in obese mice. In ALS, targets from the Virtual Human rescued neurite growth in iPSC derived motor neurons, and the POSH pooled cell painting CRISPR platform was published in Nature Communications in December 2025.
In Isomorphic Labs' case, the engine also predicted a recently discovered binding site on cereblon from the protein's sequence alone, and in a September 2026 example a design agent produced a molecule that modulated its target in laboratory testing. AlphaFold 3, the predecessor, appeared in peer reviewed form with Google DeepMind in 2024. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified September 28, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers. The full set for this category is on the Drug Discovery AI page.
Both records were reviewed on this site in September 2026. Isomorphic's benchmark figures are its own and cannot be checked from outside.
Ask both what you keep when a collaboration ends.