Drug discovery platform Atomwise has raised $6 million in seed funding. Data Collective led the round, with participation from Khosla Ventures, DFJ, AME Cloud Ventures and OS Fund.

Atomwise's technology is a virtual drug discovery platform based on the science of Deep Learning Neural Networks, and has previously been used for research on Malaria, Multiple Sclerosis, C. Difficile, and Leukemia. The system is driven by a virtual brain, modeled on the human visual cortex, that teaches itself by 'studying' millions of datapoints about how drugs have worked in the past. With this vast knowledge, Atomwise's brain can apply the patterns it perceives to predict the effectiveness of hypothetical drugs, and suggest surprising uses for existing drugs, transforming the way medicines are discovered.