Hong Kong start-up IntelliGen AI aims to challenge Google DeepMind in drug discovery
The start-up, which aims to raise tens of millions of US dollars in an angel funding round, hopes to compete globally, founder says
In an interview with the Post, founder and president Ronald Sun expressed confidence that IntelliGen AI could soon compete globally with Isomorphic Labs, a spin-off of DeepMind, in leveraging AI for drug screening and design.
“For generative science, new breakthroughs and application opportunities are global in nature,” Sun said. “Within 12 to 18 months, we aim to land major, high-value clients on a par with Isomorphic.”
The term “generative science”, although not widely recognised yet, refers to the use of AI to model the natural world and facilitate scientific discovery.
The company’s ambitious plan follows the launch of its IntFold foundational model, which is designed to predict the three-dimensional structures of biomolecules, including proteins. The model’s accuracy levels were comparable to DeepMind’s AlphaFold 3, according to IntelliGen AI.