Andrew Hopkins
Andrew Hopkins is a scientist and biotech founder who applied AI to drug discovery and now leads Xyme's enzyme-design work. He studied chemistry at Manchester and pursued a molecular biophysics PhD at Oxford, where HIV drug-resistance research in 1996 gave him the idea for automated drug design. At Pfizer, he worked on early pharmaceutical machine learning, then helped spin Dundee research into Exscientia in 2012; its AI platform helped move DSP-1181 into Phase I studies in 2020. Exscientia's precision-medicine platform won Prix Galien Digital Health awards in 2022, 2023, and 2024, and TIME named Hopkins to its inaugural TIME100 AI list in 2023. He received a CBE and left Exscientia in 2024; as of October 2026, he is Xyme's chief executive, developing generative AI for enzyme design.
- Now at
- Xyme
- Works
- 88
- Citations
- 24,131
- h-index
- 36
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1996
An idea for automated drug design
He studies chemistry at Manchester before pursuing a molecular biophysics PhD at Oxford. In 1996, he researches HIV drug resistance and imagines automating drug discovery.
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2006
Machine learning at Pfizer
At Pfizer, he works on a data-warehouse project that helps introduce early machine-learning applications in pharmaceutical research. The findings appear in Nature in 2006.
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2012–2020
From compound design to trials
At Dundee, he and colleagues develop an automated, adaptive design method that uses computational evolution to design drug compounds; Exscientia spins out from their research in 2012. Exscientia and Sumitomo Pharma apply the Centaur Chemist AI platform to DSP-1181, an obsessive-compulsive disorder candidate that begins a Phase I study in Japan in 2020.
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2022
A Prix Galien award
Exscientia's AI-driven precision-medicine platform wins the United States Prix Galien Digital Health Award in 2022.
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2023
A UK award and TIME100
The platform wins the UK Prix Galien Digital Health Award in 2023. TIME names Hopkins to its inaugural TIME100 AI list in 2023.
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2024
An international award and exit
Exscientia's precision-medicine platform wins the International Prix Galien Digital Health Award in 2024. He receives a CBE for services to science and innovation; in February 2024, Exscientia dismisses him as CEO.
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June 2025
CEO of Xyme
In June 2025, he is CEO of Xyme and focuses on enzyme design.
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As of October 2026
Chief executive at Xyme
He is Xyme's founder and chief executive, focusing on physics-infused generative AI for designing catalytic molecules for industrial and healthcare applications.
Sources and credits
Photo: xyme.ai; Xyme | Leadership; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: xyme.ai. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.
- Andrew Hopkins of Exscientia: the man using AI to cure disease
- Automated design for Drug Discovery
- Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma and Exscientia Joint Development New Drug Candidate Created Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Begins Clinical Study
- Professor Andrew Hopkins CBE FMedSci FRS | Royal Society Fellow
- Professor Andrew L. Hopkins appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
- Exscientia fires CEO after probe over relationship with two employees
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