FT: Google DeepMind Dismantled the Nobel-Winning AlphaFold Team, Reassigning Most Original Paper Authors
r/singularity (310 upvotes / 50 comments; primary: Financial Times, corroborated by Engadget)·high signal
The Financial Times reported on 2026-07-28 that DeepMind has dismantled the AlphaFold team, with the majority of the original AlphaFold paper authors reassigned over the past year to Gemini, AI coding, nuclear fusion and genomics work. The stated strategy is to build Gemini-powered systems that assist scientists and automate parts of the research process rather than maintain a dedicated structural-biology group. Nobel laureate John Jumper left for Anthropic in June, followed by AlphaFold co-authors Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel. The r/singularity thread framed the open question as whether DeepMind remains a research-first lab.