A former DeepMind scientist who helped develop AlphaFold, the AI model that revolutionised protein structure prediction, has raised $50 million to launch Latent Labs, a startup focused on using artificial intelligence to design new proteins.
Simon Kohl, a German-born physicist and machine learning expert, founded Latent Labs in 2023 with the ambition of “achieving computational mastery over biology.” The company aims to partner with biotech firms to accelerate drug development by replacing traditional experimental methods with AI-driven protein design.
The funding round, completed in December, was led by Radical Ventures, an AI-focused investment fund, alongside Sofinnova Partners, known for its life-sciences investments. High-profile backers include: Jeff Dean – Google’s chief scientist, Aidan Gomez – co-founder of generative AI firm Cohere and Mati Staniszewski – co-founder of AI audio startup ElevenLabs.
With an earlier $10 million in start-up capital, Latent Labs has now secured a total of $50 million to scale its operations.
Kohl, 34, previously worked at DeepMind, where he played a key role in the second iteration of AlphaFold—technology that has been recognised with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. While AlphaFold enables scientists to map existing protein structures, Kohl believes the next step is to design new proteins from scratch using generative AI.
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